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THE NORSE 
DISCOVERY OF AMERICA 



BY 



ANDREW POSSUM, Ph. D. 



(JOHNS HOPKINS) 




1918 
AUGSBURG PUBLISHING HOUSE 

Minneapolis, Minnesota 



u 






Copyright, 1918, by 

AUGSBURG PUBLISHING HOUSE 
Minneapolis, Minn. 



CONTENTS 

Introduction 7 — 10 

1. Thormod Torfason- 11 — 13 

2. Carl Christian Rafn 14—18 

3. Gustav Storm 19 — 22 

4. Fridtjof Nansen 23 — 24 

5. William Hov-aard 25—27 

6. Strait of Belle Isle 28—33 

7. Labrador 34—44 

8. The Northern Geo<2;raphy 46 — 65 

9. Eirik the Red 66—77 

10. Flateyarbok 78—99 

11. Thorfin Karlsefne's Saga 101—121 

12. Fre\ dis, Helge and Finboge 122—127 

13. Norse Legends 128 — 130 

14. The View Held in the Two Sagas 131—137 

15. Two Traditions 138 — 143 

16. Two Accounts 144 — 152 

17. Conclusion 153—157 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

1. Nordlandsjaegt from Lofoten Frontispiece 

2. Strait of Belle Isle 30 

3. Moonlight Glimpse of the Labrador Coast 35 

4. At Port M anvers 36 

5. Kiglapait 37 

6. Nachvak Bay 39 

7. Eskimos at Hebron 43 

8. Kogarsuk River, Nachvak Bay 43 

9. From Mount Faunce, Nachvak Bay 45 

10. From Mount Ford, Nachvak Bay 45 

11. The Earth, According to A. A. Bj0rnbo 56 

12. Map of Sigurd Stephansson 58 

13. Eiriksvag 68 

14. Eiriksf jord, From Brattalid 70 

15. Brattalid 73 

16. Igaliko (Gardar) 75 

17. Northern Countries 77 

18. East Coast of Newfoundland 79 

19. Trinity Bay, Newfoundland 79 

20. Labrador Coast, Near Cape Mugford 81 

21. Ogualik Island 82 

22. Map of. Mugford Tickle 83 

23. Mugford Tickle, South End 84 

24. Cape Mugford 85 

25. Nanuktok Island 86 

26. Mugford Tickle, From the North 87 

27. Bishops Mitre 88 

28. Northeast Coast 100 

29. South Side, Nachvak Bay 103 

30. Pomiadluk 104 

31. Davis Inlet ' 105 

32. Strait of Belle Isle 108 

33. Newfoundland 113 

34. Humber River, Newfoundland 118 



INTRODUCTION 

The Norse discovery of America is not what we would 
call a popular question, though it has attracted the atten- 
tion of many nations. Books and treatises on this subject 
have appeared in English, French and German. As might 
be expected, the question has especially interested the people 
in the Scandinavian countries whence the adventurous navi- 
gators drew their origin. After the complete disappearance 
of the Greenlanders, who in all likelihood were the leaders 
in the enterprise, their kinsmen in Iceland, Norway, Den- 
mark and Sweden took up their cause and defended their 
honor. It is only natural that the kinsmen of the explorers 
should take a lively interest in the achievements of their 
ancestors. A long list of prominent names testify to the 
interest that they take in their forefathers. In America 
the interest in this subject springs from two causes. In the 
first place there is a general desire to learn and understand 
the history of the country. Most historians now allow some 
place to the early Norse discoveries. In the second place the 
descendants of the old Norsemen have settled in large num- 
bers in this country, and like the Dutch and the French 
they still cherish a love for the land of their origin and 
take pride in the achievements of their kinsmen. To the 
modern Norseman who has had a part in the development 
of his adopted country it is a feeling of pride to know that 
his kinsmen were the first white men to set foot on American 
soil. 

But the fact that so much is written on this question 
is not altogether due to national pride or vanity. The main 
reason why people study the Vinland question is a scientific 
one. The discovery of America is one of the great events 



8 The Nor St' Discovery of J m erica 

in the history of the world, and it is a matter of grave con- 
cern to know the truth. We want to know who discovered 
America. People in the Scandina\ian countries have taken 
an especial interest in the question, because the documents 
are in their own tongue and they have ready access to the 
old literature. The saga way of thinking is not more remote 
but that thev can grasp things that appear obscure to others. 

After so much has been written on this vext question, it 
might appear superfluous to add another book to bewilder 
the minds and to clog the market; but it seems that every 
new book has only aroused a new interest and increased 
the desire to study the subject. From the discussions fol- 
lowing the last book it has always appeared that the reading 
public has not felt satisfied with its conclusions and has 
looked forward to a different solution. For two reasons 
especially I have been unable to agree with the writers on 
this subject. The attitude which they have taken to the old 
sagas and the neglect which they ha\e shown to the old 
geography I consider indefensible. If these points become 
unduly prominent in the course of the work, it is because 
others ha\e o\'erlooked them. 

If this work has any character of its own, it is that it 
accepts without reserve the statements of the saga narra- 
tive and attempts to follow the text closely. The task con- 
sists in identifying the localities described in the sagas with 
places along the east coast of America. Much excellent 
work of this kind has been done in Greenland and Iceland. 
Numerous places have been compared with the descriptions 
in the sagas and found to accord in a remarkable way. It 
has appeared to me that it was now time to study the nature 
and the appearance of the country along the east coast of 
America and to compare it carefully with the descriptions 
in the Vinland sagas. Aside from the likelihood that the 
Greenlanders first visited the mainland of America, the Vin- 
land sagas are after all our Hnal authorities in the matter. 
It stands to reason that if they are worth following we 
should follow them closely and assume that they say just 
what they mean. For one to say, as many have done, that 
he follows the sagas and then to disregard them except in 
the most general way is to set himself up as Hnal authority 



lull ()(In( lion 9 

on what the Norsemen saw and where they sailed nine hun- 
dred years ago. 

The narrative and the description in the Vinland sagas 
appear to me to be quite as natural and real as in the sagas 
laid in Greenland and Iceland. There are numerous details 
and names of places and descriptions of countries and coasts 
that can hardly be fictitious. Actual investigations in Green- 
land and Iceland have shown that the places correspond 
closely to the saga description. The same is the result of 
archeological investigations everywhere. It would not be 
surprising if the same would prove true in the case of the 
Vinland sagas. In one way the work here becomes more 
difficult, as it extends over so wide an area and cov^ers so 
long a coastline. For the same reason the descriptions in 
some cases are so much more gene>-al and more elusive, but 
no less true. The possibilities of error are multiplied by 
the increasing distances. Kjalarnes and Krossanes should 
be identified on the same general principles that Gardar 
and Herjolfsnes were located. The difficulty of obtaining 
definite starting points on the American side I have mini- 
mized by making the points of departure on the other side 
of the sea more specific. The complete severance of Green- 
land and Vinland for centuries from the rest of the world 
makes a gap in the historical continuity and necessitates a 
treatment that is different from that followed in Iceland or 
Norway. 

Those who have treated the Vinland question have in 
practice followed the method of fairy tales. Historical 
events have a fixed geography and are held together by a 
chain of cause and effect. A myth or a fairy tale has no 
definite place. Even when a localit}^ is indicated it is vague 
and imaginary in its nature. A fairy tale is cut loose from 
things real and moves in a world of its own. In the same 
way the historians of the Vinland sagas have cut loose from 
Greenland and landed the explorers at will on some part of 
the American coast. They have plunged /';/ medias res and 
told us all about Vinland without letting us know how 
they got there. They have neglected to show why they 
have selected this or that part of the coast for the ancient 
Vinland. The connecting link between Greenland and the 



10 The Norse Discovery of America 

New World is missing. To illustrate this point I shall cite 
an instance. Rafn, who was well versed in the old sagas, 
told in his great work the story of the sagas; but the mem- 
bers of the Rhode Island Historical Society, who possessed 
very scant knowledge of the sagas, located Vinland for 
him. The organic connection between the two parts was 
broken and Vinland does not hang even by a thread to 
Greenland, which is the starting point. I have endeavored 
by a careful study of Norse geography and a closer reading 
of the texts to supply this defect and to fill the gap that has 
before existed. I have not made this link. The sagas and 
geographies are clear and explicit on that point; only writ- 
ers have failed to bring it out. 

No work is done single-handed. PViends generally as- 
sist in some way or other and get little credit for it. With 
Mr. Torkel Oftelie, who is deeply interested in all subjects 
touching Norse literature, I have discussed many phases 
of this question and reaped the benefit of his judicious 
remarks. Professor Knut Gjerset, the author of the "His- 
tory of the Norwegian People," has read the manuscript 
and made some helpful suggestions. Mr. Henry Goddard 
Leach of the American-Scandinavian Foundation has gen- 
erously allowed me the use of many illustrations for this 
volume, and Professor E. B. Delabarre of Brown Univer- 
sity has put at my disposal the photographs taken on the 
Brown-Harvard Expedition in 1900. 



THORMOD TORFASON 

npHORMOD TORFASON, or Torfaeus, as he styled 
-■■ himself in Latin, was the first modern writer to treat the 
Vinland voyages somewhat at length and in book form\ 
Torfason was a native of Iceland, and like many of his 
countrymen had received his education in Denmark. He 
was deeply interested in history, and in the course of a 
long and busy life gathered a vast store of knowledge 
which he used in writing the histories of several northern 
countries. In 1705 appeared his Vinlandia, or the story 
of the Vinland voyages. In order that it might be read 
by the educated classes in all countries he wrote this work, 
like his other books, in Latin. 

Before the time of Torfason the Vinland Voyages were 
known only in part from the notices found in Arngrim 
Jonsson. It was high time to publish the accounts as 
they appeared in the sagas. Torfason narrates the events 
as they appear in the two sagas without concealing the dis- 
crepancies which they contain and without offering any 
explanation. It was evident to him that the two accounts 
did not agree. The one relates that Bjarne Herjolfsson 
and the other that Leif Eiriksson was the first to see the 
new continent. Although they differed in details, Torfason 
believed that they agreed in the main and that the minor 
discrepancies only proved their general agreement, since it 
demonstrated that we have two independent accounts of 
the same events and not two copies of the same narrative. 
He preferred the account in the Flateyarbok to that in 
the Karlsefne saga, inasmuch as it appeared to him to be 
more plain, direct and probable. In regard to Karlsefne's 
expedition, however, the account given in the Karlsefne 



12 The Norse Discovery of America 

saga seemed to be preferable, though it errs in ascribing 
this expedition to Thorvald Eiriksson, since he had died 
several years before. Nor is it correct to say that Karls- 
efne discovered and nameci Helluland and Markland, as 
Leif had already done so. 

Torfason does not attempt to reconcile the two sagas. 
He merely recounts the events in the order in which they 
come first in the Flateyarbok and then in the Hauksbok. 
Unlike modern scholars he made no ado about texts. Al- 
though he had at his disposal the best parchment manu- 
scripts, he chose to follow a paper manuscript. No. 768, 
which Bjorn Jonsson had copied for his own use in com- 
piling the Greenland Annals'. Bjorn had inserted notes 
and remarks of his own, which Torfason was not always 
careful to distinguish from the text. The reputation that 
Torfason enjoyed as a historian gave added weight to the 
Vinlandia, which continued for more than one hundred 
years to be an authority on the Vinland Voyages. 

Torfason first narrates according to the Flateyarbok 
the voyages of Bjarne, Leif and Thorvald, then Thor- 
stein's unfortunate attempt to find Vinland and Karlsefne's 
effort to colonize it, and finally he describes the ghastly 
scenes connected with the voyage of Freydis, Helge and 
Finboge. Although the last voyage rests only upon the 
authority of the Flateyarbok, Torfason believes that it 
has taken place, since it was the last voyage made to Vin- 
land. 

Then follows the account in the Hauksbok of Leif's 
voyage to Norway and his return to Greenland, when he 
was driven out of his course and came upon unknown lands. 
He tells of Thorstein's failure anci untimely death in the 
plague that devastated the Western Settlement, and finally 
he narrates at length the story of the great expedition led 
by Thorfin Karlsefne to Straumfjord and Hop. As if to 
relieve and enliven the narrative by variety, the author 
introduces at various places episodes which have nothing 
to do with the Vinland voyages, but which are in them- 
selves worth reading, such as the account of the witch 
Thorbjorg in Greenland and the Froda wonders in Ice- 
land. 



Tlioniiod Tor fas 0)1 13 

As to the location of Vinland, Torfason had no definite 
conviction. He believed in general that it should be lo- 
cated where the nature and the products of the land best 
corresponded to the description in the sagas. He over- 
estimated the value of the so-called astronomical observa- 
tion which Leif took in Vinland, and supposed that it 
showed the exact location of Vinland. According to the 
account in the Flateyarbok day and night in Vinland were 
of more equal length than in Greenland or Iceland, and 
the sun had eyktarstad and dagmdlastad on the shortest 
day in the year. From the custom in vogue in Iceland of 
placing dagmdlastad at 9 A. M. and eyktarstad or non 
at 3 P. M., Torfason assumed at first that the shortest 
day in Vinland lasted six hours anci on that basis placed 
Vinland in North Labrador (58° 26'), which he called 
Estotiland. But when his book had already been printed 
and he had read Peringskjold's translation of the Heims- 
kringla, he realized that a more southerly climate would 
better answer the purpose, and added a supplement to the 
Vinlandia. He found in "Gragas," the old church laws 
of Iceland, that when they divided the southwest into three 
equal parts, then it was eykt when the sun had passed 
through two, and one part remained. He assumed that 
southwest was the southwest quarter and equivalent to 
the time from 12 M. to 6 P. M. Two thirds of this 
would be 4 P. M., or eyktarstad, and accordingly 8 A. M. 
would be dagmdlastad. Having found that the shortest 
day in the year was eight hours long, he located Vinland 
on the 49th parallel, which passes through northern New- 
foundland\ Beyond determining the latitude for Vinland 
Torfason does not attempt to locate any place mentioned 
in the sagas. 



CARL CHRISTIAN RAFN 

THE scholar who now took up the work was Carl 
Christian Rafn, a Dane educated at Copenhagen*. 
Torfason had merely retold the stories of the sagas and 
left it to those who knew or inhabited the lands in question 
to determine the location of Helluland, Markland and 
Vinland. Rafn conceived a more ambitious plan. He pur- 
posed to collect all the documents that had to do with the 
Vinland voyages, to study the geography of the east coast 
of America, and by combining the two decide the location 
of Vinland. When he had collected and edited in an elab- 
orate way all the material that had to do with the Vin- 
land sagas, the Royal Antiquarian Society of the North 
supplied it with engravings, maps, plates and facsimiles of 
manuscripts and published it in a folio volume of 526 pages 
in 1837. In order to make his work as accurate and valu- 
able as possible, he made use of the large collection of 
manuscripts which is preserved at Copenhagen. In the 
first place we have a general summary of the contents of the 
sagas in the light in which he saw them, then the two sagas 
according to the manuscripts of the Flateyarbok and AM. 
544 and 557. Then follow numerous selections from other 
sagas touching the Vinland voyages. All the texts have 
Latin and Danish translations and critical and explanatory 
notes. Brief citations appear in the notes. Finally we 
have complete indices and long genealogical tables of fam- 
ilies prominent in these sagas. Though the selections and 
the arrangement might have been improved, this collection 
of sources, as yet for the most part unpublished, has since 
proved to be a mine of information to scholars. Rafn was 
well versed in Norse literature and has done a useful and 



Carl Christian Rafn 15 

meritorious work. Yet it is to be feared that what he 
valued most highly is not now taken so seriously. He 
aimed to locate Vinland. For this task he possessed indeed 
the literary knowledge, but lacked geographical insight. He 
never visited America, and the accounts of the Atlantic 
seaboard published at that period were inadequate to make 
up for lack of travel. 

As long as Norsemen frequented these waters the 
lands, bays and capes bore Norse names that passed on 
from generation to generation and would have continued 
down to our time as in Iceland, if the Norsemen had main- 
tained the connection. But when the sailings ceased, the 
places were gradually forgotten and the tradition broken. 
On the one hand we have now accounts of discoveries 
without any fixed places to which we may attach them, and 
on the other hand we have long coast lines which have lost 
their former history. To reconcile again the two demanded 
knowledge of the old sagas as well as geographical ac- 
quaintance with the east coast of America. 

All attempts to locate Vinland up to the time were 
based on a passage in the Flateyarbok which states that day 
and night in Vinland were of more equal length than in 
Greenland or Iceland and that the shortest day in the year 
had eyktarstad and dagmdlastad. Eyktarstad and da^- 
mdlastad were supposed to be astronomical points, which 
could be determined by calculation and in that way yield the 
location of Vinland. Pall Vidalin pointed out that accord- 
ing to Snorre's Edda the sun set in eyktarstad at 4:30 on the 
17th of October at Reykholt, Snorre's Estate, Eyktarstad 
would thus be situated so much farther south as the dif- 
ference between October 17 and December 22 in 1002, 
The astronomer Thomas Bugge calculated that this obser- 
vation had been taken at 41° 22' north. Now Rafn 
soon discovered without much difficulty that Leif's and 
Karlsefne's booths had been situated on either side of 
Mount Hope Bay in Narragansett Bay. The exact place 
was 41° 24' 10" and was long held to be the Vinland of 
the sagas. Nova Scotia he assumed to be Markland and 
Newfoundland, Helluland, or litla Helluland, to distinguish 
it from Helluland hit mikla, as he called Labrador and 



16 The Norse Discovery of America 

Baffin Land. In the mythological sagas Helluland hit mikla 
is North Greenland and could not lie south of Greenland. 
The fact that Labrador and Baffin Land lie between Rafn's 
Helluland and Greenland should have suggested to him that 
he had placed Vinland too far south. If the sagas really 
called Labrador and Baffin Land Helluland they would 
thereby admit that they had a poor conception of directions, 
which is far from being the case. 

This blunder forced Rafn to assume that Leif and Thor- 
vald sailed across the sea from Greenland to Newfound- 
land and made the transit twice as long and dangerous as 
it needed to be. He does not attempt to explain how they 
found their way past Newfoundland and reached Nova 
Scotia. Nor does he consider the distance between Green- 
land and Rhode Island and the possibility of accomplishing 
so long a voyage in the time specified in the sagas. The dis- 
tance from Greenland to Rhode Island is not less than 2200 
miles, which the Norse navigators are supposed to make in 
nine doegr. Just what a doegr is, writers are not agreed 
upon. If we assume with the majority that a doegr is twelve 
hours, nine doegr will amount to four days and a half. In 
case that is correct, then Bjarne and Leif sailed at the rate 
of 500 miles in a day and night and their ships had the 
speed of our best Atlantic liners. As Rafn saw that this 
would be wide of the mark, he accepted that doegr corre- 
sponded to 24 hours and thus reduced the speed by one-half. 
But even this speed is so great that only the best sailing 
vessels can make it under the most favorable circumstances 
and surpasses all the records which we have from the Viking 
period. Nine doegr appear to be the regular sailing to Vin- 
land and can hardly correspond to 250 miles in 24 hours. 
In the remarkable voyage which Thorarin made from M0re 
in Norway to Eyrar in Iceland he did not reach the speed 
which the Vinland sailors seem to have maintained in all 
their voyages to Vinland. Sailing vessels now require from 
30 to 40 days to go between Boston and Greenland. As 
long as we maintain that 9 doegr is 9 days, we may con- 
fidently dismiss the theory that Vinland was in New Kng- 
jand. 

Rafn like the other scholars of that period put great 



Carl Christian Rafn 17 

faith In the so-called astronomical observation, as Bugge 
had calculated It. He corresponded with the Rhode Island 
Historical Society, which supplied him with drawings, maps 
and all the topographical information which he desired. 
With this assistance he soon located most of the places 
mentioned In the sagas. He even thought that he saw Norse 
runes In the Indian marks on the Dighton Writing Rock 
and in the Assonet Inscriptions. 

If the distance from Greenland is too great, the dis- 
tances In Vinland itself were rather short. Rafn discovered 
all the places referred to in the sagas within fifty miles. 
Cape Cod is Kjalarnes; Buzzards Bay and Marthas Vine- 
yard are Straumfjord and Straumsey. Leif's booths lie on 
the east and Karlsefne's booths on the west side of Mount 
Hope Bay In Narragansett Bay. Nantucket is the island 
where Leif and his men went ashore and found sweet dew 
In the grass. One gets the impression from the saga that 
Straumfjord was far away from Kjalarnes; but on Rafn's 
map it is only a few miles. From Straumfjord Karlsefne 
sailed a "long" time before he reached Hop. Although the 
distance Is not Indicated In doegr^ one Is surprised to find 
It within 20 miles and that the "long" voyage could hardly 
have exceeded three or four hours. Still within these twenty 
miles the climate is said to have changed completely. While 
the winter is long and severe at Straumfjord and fish and 
game leave the coast in the fall, no snow fell at Mount 
Hope Bay, cattle grazed all winter and there was game and 
fish in abundance. It was strange that Karlsefne's men did 
not find Leif's booths, which were on the other side of the 
bay a couple of miles away. Besides, Mount Hope Bay Is 
not a lake as in the saga, but a part of Narragansett Bay. 
South from Kjalarnes on the west side of the land Karlsefne 
sailed a "long" time when he searched for Thorhal. But 
this "long" voyage in Cape Cod Bay could hardly have 
exceeded two hours. The extreme simplicity of imagining 
that the pilot of Eirik the Red would get lost in Cape Cod 
Bay is amusing. 

If these distances and directions are doubtful in the 
Karlsefne saga, they become Impossible when we try to 
make them tally with the Flateyarbok. Here Vinland lies 



18 Tlic Norse Discovery of America 

on a north coast and ships pass east and west along the 
coast. While the ship's boat is exploring the country to the 
westward, Thorvald sails the merchant ship eastward along 
the land and then southward east of the land. To cruise 
east of the land Thorvald must have turned southward at 
the northeast corner of the land. In his cruise east of this 
land he comes upon the west coast of another land, which 
he follows north to Kjalarnes. From Kjalarnes he sails 
eastward along the land till he turns the corner and finds 
himself on the east coast of this land, where he falls in a 
battle against the natives and is buried at Krossanes. 

One sees the futility of attempting to reconcile these 
coastlines with Rafn's map. The long north coast of Vin- 
land he makes the south coast of Massachusetts on Buz- 
zards Bay. The island which in the saga lies north of the 
land becomes Nantucket, which lies south of the land. When 
the saga relates that Thorvald sailed east along the north 
coast and south along the east coast, Rafn makes him sail 
east along the south coast and north along the east coast. 
At Kjalarnes he loses all sense of directions. The saga 
relates that Thorvald sails east from Kjalarnes. Rafn 
makes him sail straight west to Krossanes. This is sufficient 
to show that Rafn disregarded the distances and directions 
indicated in the sagas. 

Rafn's theory had many faults and drawbacks, but his 
Vinland had the great advantage of being a grapeland. 
Many were willing to overlook minor shortcomings when 
they found what they considered essential. A Vinland with- 
out grapes did not appeal to them. They were not so crit- 
ical about distances and directions. Rafn's work made a 
great impression and held its ground for fifty years. Rafn 
seems to have been credulous and unsuspecting. He ac- 
cepted without question the so-called astronomical observa- 
tion and Bugge's calculation. He did not question the loca- 
tion of Vinland at so great a distance from Greenland. He 
found no difficulty in adapting the two sagas to the same 
geography and proving the Norse origin of the Dighton 
Writing Rock and the Assonet inscriptions. 



GUSTAV STORM 

T7IFTY years later Gustav Storm, professor of history 
■■' in the University of Christiania, Norway, wrote a book 
which gained immediate recognition and has since had a 
determining influence on several works'. Storm believed 
that the Norsemen had discovered America, and found his 
chief arguments in the Karlsefne saga. He was more crit- 
ical than Rafn and often went to the other extreme. Rather 
than to accept too much, like Rafn, he threw away too much. 

The astronomer Geelmuyden had in the meanwhile 
given a new interpretation to the passage in Gragas. Ac- 
cording to him cykt is a fixed point and cyktarstad the coin- 
ciding point on the horizon. The Norsemen divided the 
horizon into eight parts, or octants, in such a way that 
south or southwest was the middle of the octant which it 
named. Counting from south, the southwest octant extends 
from 22"^ 30' to 61'' 30'. When we divide southw^est into 
three equal parts and take two-thirds, we obtain 52° 30' as 
the position of the sun in eyktarstad. Calculating from this, 
the latitude in which the sun set on the shortest day in the 
year in the 11th century, he derived 49° 55' north latitude. 
This was corrected by Captain R. L. Phytian, U. S. N., of 
Washington, D. C, to 49° and is the same that Torfason 
had reached in a crude way 180 years before. The assump- 
tion was, that Leif could not have taken this observation 
farther north. How much farther south was an open 
question. 

Storm was of the opinion that Rafn had placed Vinland 
too far south. Nova Scotia lay nearer the parallel cal- 
culated by Geelmuyden and seemed to him to answer better 
the description given in the saga. The northern point of 



20 The Norse Discovery of America 

Cape Breton Island might be Kjalarnes, past which Karls- 
efne sailed south and north on both sides of the island. He 
located Straumfjord at Gut of Canso and Hop farther west 
in Nova Scotia. Although Nova Scotia lies in a subarctic 
climate and produces no grapes, Storm claimed that it was 
a grapeland, relying for this information on the reports of 
travelers of the sixteenth century, who alleged that they had 
seen grapes there. Even geographically Nova Scotia can 
hardly he said to correspond to Straumfjord and Hop. To 
be sure it has a Cape that points northward, which in so far 
might be Kjalarnes, but one looks in vain for long sandy 
beaches on one side and bays on the other side of the nes. 
In the saga Straumfjord lies on an east coast that trends 
eastward, while Nova Scotia has a south coast that trends 
westward. 

It was plain to Storm that the description of Vinland 
as it is given in the Flateyarbok did not fit Nova Scotia. 
Storm was convinced that no place on the coast could be 
found to tally with the Flateyarbok and so did not seek 
to reconcile the two sagas. The Flateyarbok impressed him 
as being fictitious and unreal and resembling the mythological 
sagas composed in the 14th century, when the historical 
events were largely forgotten. In short, the Flateyarbok 
appeared to him to be of a later date than the Karlsefne 
saga and largely imaginary. Again the contents of the 
Flateyarbok differed materially from the Karlsefne saga. 
It tells of five expeditions to Vinland, while the Karlsefne 
saga knows only of two. Bjarne Herjolfsson is otherwise 
unknown. Gudrid's husband, Thore, the Norwegian, is men- 
tioned in no other saga. Halfrid is there the paternal 
grandmother of bishop Thorlak Runolfsson, but elsewhere 
she is his mother. F'or the future. Storm thought, historians 
should accept of the Flateyarbok only what could be cor- 
roborated from other sources. 

There are indeed difficulties in this saga, but hardly of 
such a nature as to call for the heroic measures resorted to 
by Storm. He did not see that the two sagas are so inti- 
mately bound together, that by wrecking the one he seriously 
endangered the other. It is plain that he exaggerated the 
case in order to get rid of the Flateyarbok, which did not 



Gustav Storm 21 

suit his views. It is putting the thing on edge to say that the 
two narratives disagree throughout and that if the one is 
genuine the other is false. The sagas, being transmitted by 
oral tradition, often differ in minor details. If the descrip- 
tions of Helluland resemble the mythological sagas, it is 
because both attempt to describe rocky and desolate tracts 
beyond the growth of vegetation. 

As to the geography of the northern countries Storm 
went astray. He found in bits of Icelandic geography a 
statement that Helluland and Markland lay to the south of 
Greenland, and without fitting these fragments into the other 
geographical notices from the old literature he assumed that 
this was the general conception of the Norsemen in the age 
of discoveries. In practice his theory proved so difficult 
that he could not follow it out. 

Storm thought he saw the solution of Karlsefne's route 
past Vestri Bygd. He placed Bj0rne0 in Lysefjord in the 
West Bygd. By going past West Bygd Karlsefne thought, 
according to Storm, that he could shorten the passage over 
the open sea. But if Helluland really lay to the south of 
Greenland, as he maintained, this could only lengthen the 
passage and make them pass and repass the same waters. 

Storm was in some ways a keen observer. He saw that 
Rafn had placed Vinland too far south and moved it to 
Nova Scotia, which in latitude was a fairly acceptable loca- 
tion. He was also the first one to see that the geography 
of the two sagas was not the same. Storm's book is inter- 
esting reading and abounds in keen and just observations 
on many subjects; but it is to be feared that he was never 
quite at home in this question. 

Storm was a critic. To solve a question he accepted a 
theory to which he adjusted the facts in the case. All went 
well as long as the facts agreed with the theory. But if 
they did not agree, there was trouble. The scientific way 
of letting the facts fall into their places naturally and with- 
out forcing he did not understand or did not have the pa- 
tience to practice. With him it was to bend or break and 
it often broke. 

Storm correctly refused to accept Rafn's location of Vin- 
land in Rhode Island, which he thought too far south and 



22 Tlie Norse Discovery of America 

made the v^oyage too long and difficult. He assumed that 
Nova Scotia was the Vinland of the sagas. In latitude it was 
nearly correct and accorded better with the astronomical cal- 
culation of Geelmuyden. But unfortunately for his theory 
it has a subarctic climate and does not produce grapes nor 
does it agree with the description of either saga. To be 
sure, he was able after a fashion to adjust the Karlsefne saga 
to this location, but the Flateyarbok requires a different 
geography and could not be accommodated within the lim- 
ited conditions of Nova Scotia. The false assumption that 
Nova Scotia was Vinland led to other blunders. Finding 
that the Flateyarbok could not be accommodated to Nova 
Scotia, he decided that this saga was spurious and fictitious 
and rejected it. Again, when he found that the sailing di- 
rections and the distances in the saga did not go well with 
Nova Scotia as Vinland, he assumed that these were unim- 
portant. It did not occur to him that his theory might be 
at fault. 

In regard to the northern geography he proceeded in 
a similar way. Thinking that he had found in some frag- 
mentary bits of Icelandic geography the novel and striking 
idea that Helluland, Markland and Vinland were islands 
situated south of Greenland, he concluded without studying 
the complete geographies that this was the prevailing con- 
ception among the old Norsemen. This was unfortunate, 
as it distorted all the sailing directions and made it impos 
sible to comprehend the sagas. The Bj0rne0 from which 
Karlsefne sailed to Helluland he placed in Lysefjord In 
the W^est Bygd to accommodate it to his new geography. 
But as Labrador and Newfoundland lie to the southwest, he 
had to admit that the Norsemen sailed southwest when they 
meant to sail south and that the Norsemen never really 
found their bearings in the western waters. 



FRIDTJOF NANSEN 

URIDTJOF NANSEN has taken up the Vinland question 
■*■ from a different angle and treated it from a new point 
of view. It is a welcome contribution and presents the 
question in a readable and interesting manner. His treat- 
ment, however, is literary rather than historical. After the 
manner of Moltke Moe he treats the Vinland sagas^ as the 
final development of old myths. Nansen is of the opinion 
that the Vinland sagas are the Norse version of the Greek 
and Latin fables and myths about the Isles of the Blessed. 
He thinks that the Irish took these myths from the Greeks 
and Romans, transformed them somewhat and passed them 
on to the Icelanders, who wove them into tales about a land 
which they were supposed to have found in the west. The 
voyages of St. Brandan as told in De Fortunatis Insulis seem 
to have been known in Iceland and to have influenced Ice- 
landic literature. Fictitious writings hav^e often influenced 
and colored historical works. That the Vinland sagas show 
the marks of this and other influences from Ireland is freely 
admitted. But to assume that the Vinland sagas are essen- 
tially fictitious is to misunderstand their character. Much 
of this misunderstanding on the part of Nansen comes from 
the fact that he follows in the footsteps of Gustav Storm. 
Storm had discarded the Hateyarbok and parts of the Karls- 
efne saga as fictitious. He had no faith in the distances 
and sailing directions and accepted a geography that was 
altogether fictitious. Placing Helluland, Markland and 
Vinland as islands in the middle of the Atlantic south of 
Greenland, he adopted a geography that was nearly as myth- 
ical as that of St. Brandan's voyages. Taking over this 
literary inheritance from Storm and with an interest in the 



24 The Norse Discovery of America 

history of myths, Nansen could hardly fail in studying the 
Vinland sagas to arrive at the conclusions that he sets forth 
in Northern Mists, A closer study of all the Icelandic 
geographies would have shovi^n that Storm and Bj0rnbo 
were totally wrong and that the real geography of the sagas 
tallies nearly with our own. As a practical man with a wide 
knowledge of the northern regions, Nansen would have ar- 
rived at different results if he had approached the subject 
in a different way. 

Still he does not deny the Norse discovery of America; 
but he bases it on the probability of the case rather than on 
the narrative of the sagas and upon incidental remarks in 
the Vinland sagas and in the Icelandic literature. He takes 
it for granted that the Norsemen discovered America, be- 
cause they lived so long in Greenland and were enterprising 
sailors. The incidental mention in the Icelandic annals of 
the Greenland ship that had sailed to Markland and drifted 
without anchor to Iceland in 1347 had more weight with 
him than the story of the sagas. This seems to have been 
one of many regular occurrences that was accidentally 
recorded. He regards the description of the first meetings 
with the natives as a strong evidence of the real visits of 
the Norsemen. He does not believe that a saga-teller who 
had not seen the natives and observed their ways could have 
given a description of their traits that is so true and vivid. 
With regard to the comparative value of the incidental 
information and the story of the saga we differ with Nansen. 
We believe that the incidental information that Nansen 
accepts from various sources is in complete accord with the 
sagas when they are read as the Norsemen intended them to 
be read and understood. It is only when we reject the real- 
istic traits of the sagas and accept an imaginary and fabulous 
geography in the manner of Storm, Bj0rnbo and Nansen 
that we can find a resemblance between the sagas and St. 
Brandan's voyages. 



WILLIAM HOVGAARD 

IN the fall of 1914 a book on the Vinland voyages was 
published by William Hovgaard, late commander in the 
Danish Navy, and at present professor of Construction in 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The work is 
supplied with several maps, has numerous excellent illus- 
trations and discusses in an entertaining way the different 
phases of this question, such as life in Iceland, the discovery 
of Greenland and its historical remains, shipbuilding and 
navigation in the North, the texts of the Vinland sagas, 
the geography of the east coast and the location of Vinland\ 
We shall consider only the sailing routes which Hovgaard 
proposes. 

So far it has been the practice to place the corresponding 
lands mentioned in the two sagas on the same parallels. 
Thus the first land that Bjarne saw on his voyage north- 
ward lies about on the same parallel as Leif's Vinland and 
Karlsefne's Hop; Bjarne's second landfall corresponded to 
Leif's and Karlsefne's Markland and Bjarne's third land to 
Leif's and Karlsefne's Helluland. Hovgaard has broken 
up this understanding and assumes three sailing courses of 
unequal length along the east coast. One reaches from Grin- 
nell Glacier in Baffin Land to southern Newfoundland. An- 
other reaches from Grinnell Glacier or northern Labrador to 
northern Newfoundland. And again another goes from 
Grinnell Glacier to Rhode Island. There is no evident gain 
in thus cutting up the courses, but it rather tends to give the 
impression that the visits of the Norsemen were so hurried 
and superficial that they were unable to keep the lands dis- 
tinct from each other and that there was no common under- 
standing as to where the different lands were located. If the 



26 The Norse Discovery of America 

Norsemen themselves were not able to keep the different 
Ifinds apart from each other, it is no wonder that we after 
so many centuries should experience some difficulty in locat- 
ing them. Inasmuch as the narratives do not call for any 
dislocation of the courses and no advantage is gained by 
cutting them up, it is well to abide by the time-honored 
practice. 

According to Hovgaard Bjarne first saw land off New- 
foundland and then off the Labrador coast and had his third 
landfall off Grinnell Glacier, whence he sailed east south- 
east to Herjolfsnes in Greenland. Going in the opposite 
direction in the course that Bjarne had described, Leif founci 
Helluland in Baffin Land, Markland in Nova Scotia and 
Vinland in New England. 

Already by this arrangement we see that Hovgaard's 
method is loose and that he has not grasped the real pur- 
pose of the saga. Considering the care with which he has 
done the rest of the work, it is a bit surprising to find so 
little insight into sailing courses in a trained navigator. He 
does not seem to have recognized that in a book dealing with 
the Vinland voyages it is a matter of prime importance to 
have the courses right. 

Bearing off to the southward from Disco Island, sup- 
posed to be Bj0rne0, in Greenland, Karlsefne according to 
Hovgaard found Helluland in the neighborhood of Grinnell 
Glacier or the Four Peaks in North Labrador, Markland 
near Nain or Davis Inlet in Middle Labrador, Kjalarnes 
at Cape Bauld and Hop in White Bay, New Foundland. 
With Helluland and Kjalarnes fairly located, Hovgaard 
should have seen through the rest and mastered the situa- 
tion, but unfortunately he changed the text and got be- 
yond his depth. Going south the saga has in succession: 
Markland, Furdustrandir, Kjalarnes, Straumfjord and Hop, 
which he changed to Markland, Straumfjord, Furdustran- 
dir, Kjalarnes and Hop. Had he observ^ed the order in 
the text he might have obtained good results. By not 
thinking through the entire situation he has brought about 
a hopeless confusion. 

From Eiriksfjord Karlsefne sailed to Vestribygd, thence 
to Bj0rne0 far up the west coast of Greenland, between 



William Hovgaard 27 

Godthaab and Disco Island. Thence he bore off to the 
south and came to Helluland either at Grinnell Glacier or 
at Four Peaks in North Labrador. Then he found Mark- 
land at Nain or Davis Inlet and Straumfjord at Sandvvich 
Bay and followed the Furdustrandir to the Strait of Belle 
Isle. That this coast has no sandy strands and has an 
abundance of excellent harbors while Furdustrandir had 
long sandy strands and no harbors, does not seem to bother 
the author. Proceeding on his voyage southward Karlsefne 
came to Kjalarnes at Cape Bauld and Hop at Sops Arm 
in White Bay. There are several reasons why Sops Arm 
cannot be Hop. The winter there is as severe as in Labra- 
dor; the bay and coast are covered with ice and snow for 
miles out upon the sea, and fish and game leave this coast 
in the fall as they did at Straumfjord. From Sop's Arm 
to the west coast the distance is about 35 miles. In their 
daily excursions from the camp the Norsemen must either 
have reached or at least seen the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Yet 
when they sailed along the west coast the following summer, 
they thought they saw the land of the Unipeds in the interior 
and were uncertain whether they had seen the same moun- 
tains from Hop. Had they spent one year at Sops Arm 
they would not have been in doubt about either. 

Hovgaard's location of Straumfjord at Sandwich Bay 
leads to strange inconsistencies. From Sandwich Bay 
Thorhal Veideman sails northward along the Labrador 
coast In search of Leif's Vinland. By sailing northward he 
would come to Helluland, but not to Vinland. In the saga 
he passes Kjalarnes and Furdustrandir, which lie south of 
Sandwich Bay. In his course northward Thorhal encoun- 
tered a gale from the west which drove him to Ireland. 
Though Karlsefne had accompanied Thorhal as far as the 
island and had seen him sail away to the north, he strangely 
enough, in searching for him, turns his prow southward and 
seeks to find him on the west coast of Newfoundland. It is 
exceedingly strange for the captain of the expedition to 
send his pilot northward and then seek him to the south- 
ward. This alone is enough to show that Straumfjord was 
not at Sandwich Bay. 



STRAIT OF BELLE ISLE 

' I ''HE Strait of Belle Isle is about 73 miles long and 26 
-■■ miles wide between Battle Harbor and Cape Bauld, so 
wide that one can not see across. It becomes narrower 
toward the west and is only nine miles and a half at Point 
Amour near the west end*. A ship coming from the north 
along the coast does not perceive land on the opposite side 
before it is over against Cape Norman, The Labrador 
coast consists of a low range of hills about 200 feet high, 
that slope gently toward the sea with many safe harbors. 
One observes along the coast many remarkable sights, 
which the saga might have mentioned and thereby settled 
some of our doubts regarding the visits of the Norsemen. 
Had they for instance mentioned the Batteries at Red Bay 
or the Castles in Chateau Bay we would here have had an- 
other point of departure. Icelandic literature takes little 
interest in landscapes and scenery. On the Newfoundland 
side they call attention to something of a practical nature. 
As the ship follows the Labrador coast and passes from 
harbor to harbor, orte sees from the deck a great deal of 
the coast. The opposite coast is so far away that one per- 
ceives only a low white strand in the distance. Crossing at 
the west end the steamer comes to a long and dangerous 
shore marked by many wrecks. I had long desired to inspect 
this coast, regarding which I had found it impossible to ob- 
tain definite information. At St. Johns I spoke with people 
who had been there, and on a trip around New Foundland 
in August, 1914, I had occasion to examine it more closely. 
I made the trip in company with Mr. J. F. Fries of Toronto, 
South Dakota. As the boat steamed off to the south, we 
went ashore at Flowers Cove. For going east we found 



Strait of Belle Isle 29 

no conveyance. The boats were out fishing and horses are 
not found on this coast. We were told that there was a 
horse at Eddys Cove, 18 miles east; but on arriving there 
we learned that in the spring, after a short and sad existence 
on this lonely shore, he had died of cold and dampness. Nor 
had they proper roads. From Flowers Cove to Cape Nor- 
man there is a foot path which crosses creeks and streams 
by fords and is often imperceptible. At most of the houses 
we saw from six to fifteen dogs and several dogsleighs, 
which are unused in summer. In winter the natives drive 
on the ice that covers the strait and on the hard snow that 
reaches above the tree-tops and allows full sweep to their 
favorite sport. At times one sees a team or two of reindeer 
from St. Anthony, where Dr. Grenfell keeps a large herd 
from Lapland. 

As the next boat was to go south the following Sunday 
and we had six days at our disposal, we decided to go on 
foot rather than to lie idle. If we could make 18 miles a 
day, we could go to Cape Norman and back before the 
next steamer arrived. All went well ; Wednesday afternoon 
we had tea with the keeper of the lighthouse at Cape 
Norman, Mr. Alex. W. Campbell from the west coast of 
Cape Breton, and reached Cooks Harbor in the evening; 
Saturday afternoon we returned hale and hearty to Flowers 
Cove after a journey of 104 miles. 

The air was cool and clear and we saw easily the Labra- 
dor coast all the time. We could count upwards of a 
score of icebergs every day. Some were so large that they 
stuck to the bottom of the strait, which has a depth of 30 
fathoms. No grain grows on this coast. If the season is 
favorable, potatoes, carrots, turnips, rutabagas, rhubarb 
and parsnips ripen there. They were beginning to keep a 
few cows, which the women favored. The men complained 
that if they were to take care of the fishing they found 
little time to cut hay, which is scarce; but the women retorted 
that they could find time if they wanted to. The fact is, 
that the hazardous and uncertain trade of fishing seems to 
unfit men for regular work. In the winter the cows feed 
partly on fish. The coast abounds in fish, but the fishermen 
could only dispose of the cod. There was no market for 



30 



The Norse Discovery of America 



halibut. The men Hsh in summer and trap in winter. The 
fish flakes along the water's edge and the skins nailed to 
the outhouses to dry testify to their two pursuits. 

The entire coast from Flowers Cove to Cape Norman 
bears the name Straight Shore. To safeguard the traflic 
the Canadian government maintains three lighthouses on this 
coast, one at P'lowers Cove, another at Cape Norman and 
a third at Cape Bauld 18 miles farther east. The shore 




STRAIT OF BELLE ISLE 



runs nearly in a straight line, 45 nautical or 52 land miles 
from Flowers Cove to Cape Norman. The first 18 miles 
have a few curves or open bays which they call coves and 
where they keep their fishing boats. Around these coves 
at the west end lie some small fishing villages; but from 
Eddys Cove to Cape Norman, a distance of 34 miles, there 
is neither harbor nor fishing village. In two places I saw a 
couple of houses; otherwise the coast is completely deserted. 
For lack of harbors the coast steamers turn back at Cooks 
Harbor and Flowers Cove. Between these points, 55 miles 
apart, fish and provisions are carried in small boats. 



Strait of Belle Isle 31 

This entire shore has a substructure of limestone which 
crops out in broken layers along the shore and projects as 
shelves under the water and makes a dangerous coast. Be- 
yond there is deep water. The strand consists of gray 
sand, which at the water's edge is usually fine and becomes 
coarser higher up. Toward the top are found only pebbles 
with sand underneath. Farther back lie masses of small 
stones which the ice and billows have crushed. The whole 
beach has a grayish appearance and looks at a ciistance like 
sand. 

In a few places west of Cape Norman lie great heaps 
of limestone, which the sea has crushed into small bits and 
piled into huge drifts. They are probably forty or fifty 
feet high and several hundred feet long. With the excep- 
tion of Cape Norman and a couple of other places where 
the projecting layers of limestone stand like a wall against 
the sea, this whole beach is sandy, the western part is very 
sandy. Dr. Grenfell, who is Superintendent of the Inter- 
national Deep Sea Mission and who has sailed these waters 
for 22 years, assured me at St. Johns that this was a sandy 
beach from Flowers Cove to two miles east of Cape Nor- 
man. Seen from the ship's deck at some distance from 
the shore it looks like a sandy beach and one would take it 
to be a sandy beach. With the exception of Cape Porcupine 
Strand, which is ten miles long, there is, he said, no sandy 
beach of any length till you come to southwestern Nova 
Scotia. Dr. Grenfell is familiar with all these shores and 
takes an interest in the Norse question, which he has touched 
upon in his book on Labrador. Later I met Dr. Grenfell 
on the boat to Battle Harbor and with him went over the 
whole question. 

From a few feet above the sea-level at the west end the 
shore rises to 61 feet at Cape Norman and continues south- 
ward in springy mosses and swamps at apparently the same 
level. At the west end the neighboring land is a little higher. 
The eastern part is generally high and stony, bare and for- 
saken, and finally ends in a stony desert about the nes. 
The western part is wooded with a low and dwarfy growth 
of firs. On account of the prevailing wind at certain sea- 
sons the trees bend eastward. In the most exposed places 



32 The Norse Discovery of America 

instead of growing up into the air they follow the ground. 1 
saw firs five or six feet across and only from twelve to 
eighteen inches high. East of Cape Norman and around 
Pistolet Bay we again found some timber. 

This coast is so lonesome and monotonous that one 
tires of it. All points and curves on the shores are so much 
alike that one does not seem to advance, though he walks 
all the time. There are no hills or mountains in the back- 
ground to catch the eye, only the low coastline and nothing 
against the sky. Such this coast looked no doubt to the 
Norsemen in the beginning of the eleventh century, when 
they called it Furdustrandir, "because it was so long to sail 
past." Kjalarnes receives frequent mention and is a land- 
mark in the sagas. Thorvald Eiriksson coming from the 
west is driven upon the nes in a storm and breaks the keel 
of his ship. When they had repaired the vessel in Cape 
Cove they carried the old keel on top of the nes and set it 
up as a warning to other vessels. Thence they sailed east- 
ward along the land (austr fyrir landit) and came to 
the east coast. Thus Kjalarnes can not be Cape 
Bauld, because that is the northeast point and one 
can not sail farther east along the land. Furthermore 
Cape Bauld is an island with a passage for ships between 
the island and the mainland, while Cape Norman is the 
landsend (andnesi) toward the north. A few years later 
Karlsefne follows -the coasts, as we have described them, 
crosses the strait at the west end, follows the long and sandy 
Straight Shore and finds at length on the nes the keel that 
Thorvald and his men had raised there. 

As soon as one passes the Cape the coast is broken by 
bays (l^a g^rdist landit vagskorit). There is a long suc- 
cession of coves and bays to the east coast. First we have 
a small and wooded cove almost under the cape, called Cape 
Cove or Normans Cove, whence a road leads up to the light- 
house. That this cove was fairly well wooded in former 
times, appears from the number and sizes of the stumps. 
Then we have Wild Bight and Cooks Harbor, before we 
come to Pistolet Bay, which reaches fourteen miles south- 
ward. Eastward lie Ha-Ha Bay, Island Bay, Noddy Bay 
and Quirpon Bay. If there were no bays west of the nes, 



Strait of Belle Isle 33 

there is no scarcity on the east side. In one of these bays 
Karlsefne anchored his ships and put two Scotch runners on 
shore to examine the land to the south. They returned 
with an ear of shore wheat and what they thought was a 
bunch of grapes, but it was probably squash berry, which 
grows in the neighboring woods. 

My contention is, that Cape Norman is the ancient Kjal- 
arnes and the Straight Shore west of it are the Furdustran- 
dir. If we are to make any progress in the study of the 
Vinland sagas it is necessary in the first place to identify 
and locate some of the names in the sagas. Of these Kjal- 
arnes appears to me to be the most important one. All 
ships pass in the neighborhood of it and all sailing routes 
radiate from it. It is, so to speak, at the cross-roads of 
travel in the new world. Writers have called several capes 
Kjalarnes anci in that way confused our knowledge of Norse 
geography, and admit thereby that the Norsemen them- 
selves did not have any accurate idea about the location of 
these lands. The Icelandic geographies present a definite 
and systematic knowledge of the New World, which is in 
accord with the sagas. The Vinland sagas are narratives of 
discoveries and not treatises on geography. 

Writers seem to have hesitated to let the Norsemen 
pass thru the Strait of Belle Isle, because in the age of 
disco\ery the strait was late to be noticed. English and 
Portuguese navigators frequently passed along the east coast 
without observing the Strait of Belle Isle. But the con- 
ditions were different. These navigators had comparatively 
large Aessels and kept at a safe distance from the shore and 
saw the land from far out at sea; they supposed that the 
opening to the strait was a bay like so many other bays 
along Newfoundland and passed it unobserved. The 
Norse navigators, on the other hand, had small boats and 
hugged the shore rather closely and found themselves in 
the strait almost before they knew there was a land 
opposite. 



LABRADOR 

THE Labrador coast from Battle Harbor on the Strait 
of Belle Isle to Cape Chidley is said to be about 700 
miles, and as a ship goes it is generally thought to be about 
800 miles long. If we should take into account the nu- 
merous fjords and bays that indent the coast, the length 
would be three or four times greater.^ Along the entire coast 
lies a range of mountains pushed close out to the sea. In 
the northern part it is high and steep and in many places 
rises almost directly out of the sea. In the southern part 
the coast is comparatively low, having an average height of 
about 500 feet. The lowest stretch is along the Strait from 
Red Tickle to Blanc Sablon, where the hills are about 200 
feet high and slope gently to the sea with many excellent 
harbors. From the coast range the land rises gradually 
to the watershed, which is several hundred miles away. 

Though the coast in southern Labrador is often cut 
up by rivers, bays and fjords that go far into the land, yet 
all the heights and islands are nearly of the same level and 
the whole country has the appearance of being flat and 
level. ^° Travelers speak of the flowing outline of the 
south Labrador coast.^^ In spite of the many hills and 
valleys the top level is nearly always the same, and one 
has the impression of seeing the beginning of a great plateau 
or plain^-. When one sees from the deck of the ship these 
islands and heights, an endless succession of hills and val- 
leys, it appears at first to have a very broken surface; but 
when the coastline is seen at dusk or in the bright 
moonlight when the details fade away and only the masses 
loom up, the coast seems to have a continuous line that has 
no break. The saga calls it even or flat — not low — and in 



36 



The Norse Discovery of America 



so far agrees with modern travelers. "From the deck of 
a schooner or steamer coursing several miles offshore the 
hundred visible hills of the coast-belt are seen to accord so 
closely in elevation that the general sky-line is notably flat. 
The flatness would scarcely be more pronounced if some 
miraculous shovel were to fill in the valleys. "^■" In the Strait 
the sky-line comes down and the hills finally disappear 
largely in the sand dunes at Blanc Sablon. Southern or flat 




Al' roi;T AlA.WHib. AUGUST 12 



Labrador reaches from the Strait past Hopedalef which is 
350 miles north of Battle Harbor. 

Northern Labrador has a high and bold appearance. 
The loftiest mountains on the east coast of North America 
lie there. They reach back into the interior less than fifty 
miles and heap themselves up along the coast. Though 
they ha^'e neither the extent nor the height of a big mountain 
range, they make a great impression, because they lie close 
to the sea and rise almost perpendicularly out of the water. 
While other mountains rise from a plateau or from lower 



Labrador 



37 



ranges and in that way a part of their size is lost to view, 
the entire height of these mountains is seen at a glance, as 
they loom out of the sea'\ The large patches of snow seen 
about their tops and their naked sides rising into the sky 
without forest or vegetation only enhance their size. 

At Nain the cliffs along the coast are high; at Port 
Manvers, in latitude 57°, they reach a height of 




KIGLAPAIT, SEPTEMBER 11 



2000 feet; but at Cape Mugford, in latitude 58', they 
climb to 3000 feet and convince the traveler that he has 
come into a new land. There are three mountain ranges 
in north Labrador. Some fifteen miles north of Port 
Manvers lies east and west a chain which is called Kiglapait, 
or the Great Sierra. From the sea one can count ten peaks 
ranging from 2500 to 4000 feet. Fifty miles farther north, 
in latitude 58°, lie the Kaumajet, or White Mountains, 
so named because they are usually covered with snow. This 



38 The Norse Discovery of America 

range terminates in the mighty promontory of Cape Mug- 
ford, which rises as a bare diff almost straight out of the 
sea with large masses of snow above^^ It is an island and 
is separated from the mainland by the narrow Mugford 
Tickle. Cape Mugford is a landmark about which captains 
and fishermen along the coast had something to say. The 
Newfoundland and Labrador Pilot calls it "the most remark- 
able and unmistakable land on the Labrador coast." Near 
it lies the still higher Bishops Mitre, also with patches of 
snow. Many other snowy peaks lie along the coast to the 
northwest. The photographs shown of north Labrador 
are taken in the month of August, when the extent of the 
snow is least. 

This, in my opinion, is the third land that Bjarne saw 
on his way north. He says that this land was "high and 
mountainous with frozen snow on top (ok J0kul a)." Leif 
speaking of the same land says that they saw no grass. 
Large patches or fields of snow lay in the upper parts; but 
it rose like one cliff from the sea to the frozen snow (sa 
>ar eigi gras. j0klar miklir varu alt hit efra, enn sem ein 
hella vaeri alt til J0klanna fra sjonum) . If the saga here had 
meant to speak of glaciers, or skridJ0klar, as some writers 
have thought, these would have reached from the tops 
down to the sea. Barren sides rising like one clii^ from the 
sea to snowy tops are common sights in north Labrador 
and can be duplicated in many photographs taken along 
the coast'". The word j^kul is often used for ice or frozen 
snow and needs not mean glacier. Several photographs from 
the Brown-Harvard Expedition, which passed this coast 
between August 10 and September 11, show large masses 
of snow on the mountains. Snow fell at Hebron Septem- 
ber 8. 

The stretch from Cape Mugford to Cape Chidley is the 
grandest along the whole coast. There lies a range ISO 
miles long and reaching to Cape Chidley, which the Eskimos 
call Torngats, that is, evil spirits. Ten miles south 
of Nachvak Bay we have for example Gulch Cape from 
2000 to 2500 feet high. Then comes Mount Razorback 
about 3500 feet. On both sides of Nachvak Bay the moun- 
tains rise above 5000 feet. Fifty miles farther north lie 



Labrador 



39 



the highest peaks In Labrador, the so-called Four Peaks, 
which no one has climbed. They are said to be about 
7000 feet above the sea^'. 

Neither grass nor trees grow on the Labrador coast 
north of Cape Mugford. Even south of this Cape one 
seldom sees on the coast trees of any size owing to the 
cold Labrador current, which carries with it large masses 
of Ice and chills the land. Five or ten miles from the sea, 




NACHVAK BAY, FROM HILLSIDE ABOVE HUDSON'S BAY CO. STATION, SEPTEMBER 1 



around the heads of bays, one finds trees of a larger growth ; 
the interior of Labrador Is said to be rich In timber. The 
Brown-Harvard Expedition reports that they saw on 
St. Charles River, in latitude 52°, forests of firs ten feet 
high and they were told that on St. Lewis Bay in the same 
latitude there grew firs large enough for ship timber; in 
the same bay In 1914 I saw a great many trees ten Inches 
In diameter. In Ailllk Bay, 55°, they saw willows 
ten feet and firs thirty feet high. In Makkovik Bay they 
saw firs fifty feet high. At the Hopedale mission there is 
a birch grove and at Nain a fir grove. The Moravian mis- 



40 The Norse Discovery of America 

sion reports that in 1773 they ran a sawmill by water power 
at Nain. Bishop Martin said that twenty-five years ago, 
when he first came to Nain, an Eskimo woman eighty years 
old told him that when she was a girl the whole hill- 
side used to be covered with timber. Now, however, this is 
all gone. Davis Inlet, in latitude S6°, a station of 
the Hudson's Bay Co., is well supplied with forests, which 
grow far up the hillsides. According to A. P. Law forests 
in southern Labrador are continuous north to latitude 
S'i°^ except on stony heights and on the outer islands of 
the Atlantic. North of latitude 53° the higher hills 
are treeless and the barren areas increase^*. In latitude 
SS° more than half the country is treeless, woods being 
found around lakes and in valleys. The northern limit of 
trees along the coast is latitude 58°, where small trees grow 
in protected places at the heads of the inner bays. 

The barren islands and the bare headlands of the coast 
have given people a false impression of Labrador, which 
south of Hamilton Inlet is well timbered about the heads of 
the larger bays and on the lowlands of river valleys. Hamil- 
ton Inlet is rich in timber and was still more so before the 
destructive forest fires ravaged there. Where the fires have 
not reached, the trees are much larger. The thousands of 
fishermen annually frequenting the Labrador coast have also 
done great damage. - , v;- 

Thus the contrast between South and North Labrador 
is clearly marked. South Labrador is comparatively low 
and flat; the surface of the land continues at the same level 
as far as the eye can reach; it produces grass and a limited 
amount of forests. North Labrador is high and jagged; 
the surface is broken by high mountains and deep valleys. 
Although it has no glaciers, patches of snow remain all the 
year around and snow falls in the mountains in all months 
of the year. It is devoid of grass and trees and all vege- 
tation. The transition takes place about Port Manvers, 
between Nain and Cape Mugford, the latter being clearly 
in North Labrador. 

The sagas recognize a difference in the character of North 
and South Labrador and call it by two names, Helluland 
and Markland. Helluland is the useless stoneland of high. 



Labrador 41 

snow-capped mountains where grow neither grass nor trees. 
Markland is the land where trees and grass grow and 
which appears flat and even to the eye. Both sagas show 
that Kjalarnes is the most northerly point of the land, which 
Thorvald visited and Karlsefne explored. Sigurd Stephans- 
son calls it Promontorium Vinlandiae and that is correct, 
when we thereby mean Karlsefne's Vinland. The sagas as 
well as the Icelandic geographies show that there is a sea 
north of Kjalarnes and that ships pass it east and west. 
While the Icelandic geographies say that there is a short 
distance, meaning a narrow sea, between Markland and 
Vinland, they never mention a sea between Helluland and 
Markland. A superficial reading of the sagas has given the 
impression that Helluland and Markland are islands in the 
ocean; but that is a misunderstanding and, if true, would of 
itself establish that the sagas were myths. When the ships in 
Homer go from place to place along a coast, they are said 
to sail the boundless ocean. By a similar form of poetic 
expression the ships in the sagas seem to traverse an ocean, 
when as a matter of fact they follow the coast for a com- 
paratively short distance. A more careful investigation of 
the sagas will rather show that we have to do with a con- 
tinuous coastline. I shall call attention to some stretches 
where the sagas make the ships follow the coast. If we 
can thus by statements from the sagas account for most of 
the coasts in question, it disposes for good of the idea that 
Helluland and Markland were supposed by the Norsemen 
to be islands. That Adam of Bremen speaks of Vinland 
as an island comes from the fact that he could not con- 
ceive of any thing else in the western ocean. 

From the first to the second land, that is, the east coast 
of Newfoundland to the Strait of Belle Isle, Bjarne kept 
the land on the left and the sail toward the land. From 
Bj0rne0 in Hamilton Inlet to Kjalarnes In the Strait Karls- 
efne sails "along the land." From Helluland to Bj0rne0 in 
Hamilton Inlet Karlsefne sailed southeast, which there is the 
direction of the coast. Regarding the other directions I shall 
merely say that they either correspond to the direction of 
the coast or it is said that they sailed along the land. The 
narrative shows that it was their practice to follow the 



42 The Norse Discovery of America 

coast where it was possible. The mistaken claim that Vin- 
land was located in Rhode Island has cut the narrative loose 
from all safe moorings and sent it adrift upon a sea of 
speculation. 

The description of North Labrador, or Helluland, given 
by the sagas does not fit South Labrador. We can not 
say that South Labrador is useless and without benefits, 
since it has grass and forests. Though for us coming from 
the south all Labrador may seem barren and forsaken and 
we may agree with Cartier that Labrador was the land 
that God gave to Cain, still we must admit that it would 
appear different to people coming from Greenland. 

In the old accounts Labrador is usually called Helluland 
and Markland. But, because they together make up one 
land, it is at times called Helluland or Markland. Gripla 
says that it is not far from Helluland to Vinland, while it 
is usually stated that it is not far from Markland to Vin- 
land. AM. 770c says that north of Vinland lies Markland 
and then there are obygdir and again obygdir to Greenland. 
Bj0rn Jonsson of Skardsa, who probably followed sources 
now lost, states that south of Greenland lies Helluland or 
Markland. 

The location of Helluland and Markland to the south- 
west of Greenland I shall take up in the next chapter in 
connection with the general geography of the North. 

In regard to Labrador it will be of interest to touch upon 
a matter which has not been fully examined, but which seems 
in itself to be likely and natural. The Eskimos have a 
tradition which seems to point to a European race having 
visited their coast'*'. H. J. Rink has told the legend accord- 
ing to German sources. I shall tell it as I heard it from 
Moravian missionaries in 1914. 

In olden times there lived among the Eskimos a people 
whom they called Tunit. They appear to have come from 
the St. Lawrence valley and to have settled on the islands of 
the east coast without penetrating into the country. Later 
they went north to Greenland. They were tall and strong. 
Like the Eskimos they dressed themselves in skins, but with 
this difference that the Eskimos turn the hair out, while the 
Tunit turned the hair in. The Tunit used to skin the seal 



Labrador 




ESKIMOS AT HEBRON 




KOGARSUK RIVER. NACHVAK BAY 



44 The Norse Discovery of America 

with the blubber on the skin, which to the Eskimos seemed 
a dirty way. 

Those who first told this legend supposed that the Tunit 
people were the present Greenland Eskimos, while in truth 
they are an old legendary people about whom the Green- 
land Eskimos also tell legends. 

As proofs of the former existence of the Tunit people 
the Eskimos in Labrador point to a number of ruins along 
the coast. These houses, they say, are built of stone and not 
in their manner. Ruins of this kind occur along the whole 
coast, but especially off Nain (55°-56°) and on the island 
o/ Amitok (59° 30'). Bishop C. A. Martin at Nain said that 
he once showed to Eskimos pictures of Norse houses in 
Greenland, as they are drawn in Nordenskiold's book, and 
that they immediately replied that there were similar ruins off 
Nain on some islands. As these ruins are in the neighbor- 
hood of wooded islands and as the country about Nain had 
some forests in former times, it is likely that the Norsemen 
obtained timber there. 

Graves have been found along the Labrador coast which 
do not seem to be of Eskimo origin. The Eskimos have 
no care for their dead. These graves have walled sides 
and are covered with slabs to protect the dead from wild 
beasts. 

Dr. Grenfell reports that he has found on high cliffs 
along the coast very old buildings, which seem to have been 
used for signal towers or lookouts. If on examination these 
buildings should be built on the same principle as the bea- 
cons or lookouts in Greenland, we should find a connecting 
link between the Norsemen in Greenland and in Labrador. 
Since Greenland is so near, it is evident that if the Norsemen 
reached the mainland at all they must have found Lab- 
rador. 



Labrador 




FROM MOUNT FAUNCE. NACHVAK BAY 




FROM MOUNT FORD. NACHVAK BAY 



THE NORTHERN GEOGRAPHY 

FOR the correct understanding of the Vinland sagas it will 
now be necessary to take up the geography of the nor- 
thern countries from which the explorers set out. We shall 
have to locate a few places in Greenland and elsewhere 
before we can follow the explorers on their voyages to new 
lands^*'. 

Outside of the two settlements in Greenland there were 
large tracts of wastes or deserts which they called ohygdir. 
On the east coast were extensive obygdir. The Polar cur- 
rent which follows the land carrying with it much ice, chills 
the coast and renders it uninhabitable and almost inacces- 
sible^\ The northern part of this coast seems to have borne 
the name Svalbardi, or the cold coast. Gripla, an old Ice- 
landic geography, mentions three J0klar, or glaciers on the 
east coast. One is so far away that it can not be explored; 
another is a month's journey away; to a third is a journey 
of one week. The last is called Hvitserk and is nearest to the 
(East) Bygd. Nansen, who has visited this coast, thinks he 
can associate the three J0klar with three glacier regions, one 
in 67°, another between 63° 40' and 65° 36' and a third in 
62° 20' N. If, however, J0kul means snow mountain, as 
Ivar Baardsson and Bj0rn of Skardsa used the word, Mid- 
J0kul or Blaserk would be Ingolf's mountain in 65° 25', 
which is 7,300 feet high and is the first object seen as one 
comes from Iceland. It is a landmark on this coast and 
was first seen by Eirik the Red. With the exception of 
the southern bays, which abounded in fish, seals and bears, 
the Norsemen seldom visited the east coast. Sometimes 
they were shipwrecked and forced to take refuge among 
the icebergs. The Floamanna saga tells how Thorgils 



The Northern Geography 47 

Orrabeinsfostre lost his ship on this coast. After many dan- 
gers and sufferings the survivors worked their way south- 
ward along the coast past Hvarf and came at length to the 
East Bygd. This touching account gives a vivid description 
of the trials and hardships which the settlers in Greenland 
had to pass through in those times. 

The East Bygd, beginning with Herjolfsfjord, a little 
west of Hvitserk, continued northward to Isa fjord and west 
to Ivigtut. This was the larger bygd and had in its most 
flourishing period twelve churches and one hundred and 
ninety homesteads. It included nearly the present Juliane- 
haab District as far as Ivigtut. North of the East Bygd 
there was an uninhabited tract of about 200 miles before 
reaching the West Bygd. This settlement had only four 
churches and ninety homesteads. It included the present 
Godthaab District. 

North of the West Bygd were found vast obygdir. All 
the big homesteaders in Greenland had large ships and ves- 
sels which they sent north for the Nordrseta in the summer 
to get timber and all kinds of game. Although trees do 
not grow there, they found on the coast much driftwood, 
which the currents brought from Siberia or from North 
America and deposited there. The Norsemen thought that 
this driftwood came from the bays of Markland. As seals 
were more abundant in the north, they were in the habit 
of preparing seal tar in the Nordrseta. There they also 
caught wolves, bears and reindeer. These Nordrseturmen 
had their booths or huts at Greipar or on Kroksfjardarheide. 
Since driftwood gathers mostly at Holstenborg and a short 
distance northward, it seems likely that Greipar and Kroks- 
fjardarheide were in the neighborhood of Holstenborg. We 
hear that the Skrslings came across at Kroksfjardarheide, 
because the distance there was least. As Davis Strait is nar- 
rowest at Holstenborg, we have another reason for locating 
Greipar and Kroksfjardarheide there. As the name Nordr- 
seta implies, these places were in the north and these obyg- 
dir are always spoken of as situated far in the north. Gr0n- 
lendingar hljota jafnan siglingar at hafa nor<^r at obygf>um 
a landsenda I'ann norSara e6r skagann baedi til viSar ok 
afla brag^a. Rafn, page 276. Gunnar foru i Greipar norSr, 



48 The Norse Discovery of America 

Gr0nlands er ]?ar byg(>ar spor^r, Skutu rendi nor^r um 
sjo; rem ok sigldu norf>r i Greipar. Skaldhelga saga, Rafn, 
page 276. 

Still farther north is located the snow mountain which 
Eirik the Red saw the third summer he was in Greenland. 
The expedition sent out by the priests at Gardar in 1266 
saw a snow mountain one day's rowing north of Kroks- 
fjardarheide." How far north the Norsemen were able to 
penetrate, we do not know definitely. A runic inscription 
found in 1824 near Upernavik shows that they reached 72" 
55' 20". The expedition of 1266 seems to have gone farther 
north. They speak of Davis Bay as hafsbotn, implying 
that (they thought) it was a bay and they saw land to the 
south. 

Besides the obygdir which we have mentioned the sagas 
speak of a Vestre Obygd. In the account of Eirik the Red's 
second summer in Greenland we read in Karlsefne's saga 
AM. 544: Hann var l^at sumar i Vestri ObygS; AM. 557: 
i hina vestari obyg(>; Landnama : i ena vestri obygS; Flat- 
eyarbok: i hina vestri ubyg<^. Likewise two paper manu- 
scripts have this reading. Most of the paper manuscripts 
have i Vestri Bygd, which all commentators have accepted. 
They seem to think that as long as the West Bygd was un- 
settled it was an obygd. Yet the usual meaning of obygd is a 
place that can not be inhabited (obyggjanda) . Still all the 
texts read Eystri Bygd, although that too was unsettled at 
this period. It is plain that the later copyist did not under- 
stand Vestri Obygd and changed it to Vestri Bygd, which he 
understood. Since the obygdir north of the West Bygd are 
always called northern or lying in the north they can not at 
the same time be in the west or be the Vestri Obygd. Nor 
does the Vestri Obygd correspond to the tract lying between 
the two Bygds. There are no other obygdir in Greenland. 

My opinion is that Vestri Obygd means Baffin Land. 
The second summer that Eirik the Red was in Greenland he 
sailed westward and came to Baffin Land. He remained 
there a long time and gave names to places far and wide. 
As he had sailed west from Iceland the summer before, he 
now sailed westward from Greenland to learn whether 
there were other lands in the neighborhood. The course to 



The Northern Geography 49 

the Vestrl Obygd lay from the West Bygd. The distance is 
about 200 miles and could easily be made in two days in 
good summer weather. 

That Vestri Obygd is Baffin Land appears from many 
references. Baffin Land was discovered in the lifetime of 
Eirik the Red and before the voyage of Karlsefne to Vin- 
land. The saga relates that Karlsefne sailed from Eiriks- 
fjord to Vestri Bygd and thence to Bj0rne0. From Bj0rne0 
they sailed two doegr south and came to Helluland. Since 
Bj0rne0 lies north of Helluland, it must lie west of Green- 
land, or where we find Baffin Land. The learned Odd Jons- 
son cites a variant in this place: Sigldu J^eir sif>an ut fra 
landi i vestari obygSir. Thereupon they sailed from land 
to the western obygdir. It may be of interest to know 
that scholars have been of the opinion that this saga was 
originally in narrative verse and that it was afterwards 
transcribed into prose. According to Gr0nlands Historiske 
Mindesmaerker this line ran as follows : Sigldu J'eir si6an 
undan landi i obygSir vestir. Sailed they thereupon from 
land to the western wilds. 

Thus Bj0rne0 and Vestari obygSir appear to have been 
the same place and to have lain two doegr north of Hellu- 
land, or North Labrador, A paper manuscript gives the 
distance from West Bygd to Bj0rne0 as two doegr also, 
which, if reliable, is fairly correct. In AM. 544 West 
Bygd, Bj0rne0 and Helluland are co-ordinated as stations 
on the way to Vinland and should be about equidistant from 
each other. Thus the old sagas give a fairly correct location 
of Helluland, or North Labrador. When they chose the 
course that Karlsefne took they sailed two doegr west to 
Bj0rne0 and two doegr south to Helluland. When, how- 
ever, they chose the course across the sea from the East 
Bygd to North Labrador, as Leif and Thorvald did, then 
the distance from Herjolfnes to Helluland was four doegr 
to the southwest. Karlsefne could not have chosen the 
course by West Bygd unless Baffin Land had previously 
been discovered. 

The saga states that Thorhal Veideman, the old pilot 
of Eirik the Red, joined the expedition because he was 
acquainted in the obygdir. Gustav Storm is of the opinion 



50 The Norse Discovery of America 

that these obygdir are those on the east and north coasts 
of Greenland, where the Greenlanders were wont to fish 
and hunt In the summer. Thorhal was in all likelihood fam- 
iliar with the obygdir both in the east and the north of 
Greenland, but what was worth while in this case was, that 
he was acquainted in the Vestri Obygd, which was located on 
the way to Vinland. That he had been fishing east and 
north of Greenland would only give him a general acquaint- 
ance with obygdir, which nearly all Greenlanders possessed. 

On the Vinland voyages the Norsemen gained knowl- 
edge of a long series of lands that lie in a line north and 
south, Newfoundland, Labrador and Baffin Land. How 
much farther north they reached, we do not know definitely. 
Li 1266 the priests at Gardar sent a ship north to learn 
where the Skraelings had their haunts'". From Kroksfjardar- 
heide, where the distance to Bafl'in Land was supposed to be 
shortest, they sailed (westward) till the land was out of 
sight. Then a storm from the south struck them and they 
had to run before the wind. When the storm ceased and 
the sky cleared, they found themselves among islands far up 
the west coast of Greenland, where they saw seals, whales 
and many bears. Then they went right into the bay (hafs- 
botninn) and lost sight of all the land, both the southern 
coast and the glaciers (of Greenland) ; but south of them 
(in Baffin Land) they descried also glaciers, as far as their 
eyes could reach. They found signs that the Eskimos 
had lived there in former times, but were unable to land 
for fear of the bears. Thereupon they sailed back in three 
doegr and found signs of Skraelings south of Snefell, which 
lies one day's rowing north of Kroksfjardarheide. 

This account shows that the Greenlanders had knowl- 
edge of a land west of Davis Bay. That they supposed it 
to join Greenland in the far north is natural. That the 
Vestri Obygd did not receive a name of its own seems also to 
indicate that it was thought to be a part of Greenland. 
The conception seems to have been that the haunts of the 
Skraelings were to the west in Baffin Land and that from 
there they crossed over into Greenland where Davis Strait 
was narrowest. 

A similar conception we gain from the Historia Nor- 



The Northern Geography 51 

wegiae written in the second half of the thirteenth century. 
The author, not having seen Greenland, follows the maps 
of the period and gives to Greenland a southwesterly slant 
from Bjarmaland. In order to maintain the land connec- 
tion with Russia and not make it too long in some cases they 
laid Greenland almost east and west. P'rom this it follows 
that Baffin Land, which lies to the west of Greenland, will be 
supposed on those maps to lie to the north. In Historia 
NorwegicE we are told that some sailors who wanted to 
return from Iceland to Norway were driven in a storm into 
the foggy north and there found the lands of the giants and 
of the Amazons between the Greenlanders and the Bjarmer. 
Frozen mountains separated the giants (Risir) from the 
Greenlanders. But to the north over against the Green- 
landers hunters have found some small people whom they 
call Skraelings. These do not know the use of iron, but use 
the teeth of sea animals for spears, and sharp stones for 
knives. As the giants are the neighbors of the Greenlanders 
in Greenland, it would seem that the Skraelings over against 
them lived in Baffin Land. This is about all that we know 
of Greenland from historical sources. 

In course of time, as the shipping decreased and the 
people lost interest in the real lands that they had discov- 
ered, there grew up a false and perverted idea of unreal 
and imaginary lands. The mythological sagas of the 14th 
and 15th centuries speak of Northern Greenland as a 
strange land inhabited by trolls and giants. P'ar north of 
Greipar and Kroksfjardarheide Greenland widened and 
continued as wastes and deserts, obygdir, as far as Bjarma- 
land in Russia. They told a story that a man called Halli 
Geit had made his way on foot from Greenland to Bjarma- 
land. He had with him a goat and lived of its milk, and 
they picked their way through valleys between glaciers. The 
character of the land was Icelandic with J0kuls and lava 
fields (varu fyrst J0klar ok ]>i toku vi5 brunahraun stor). 
On this account they called it Helluland (stoneland) or Hel- 
lulands obygdir, which we must not confound with the his- 
torical Helluland on the way to Vinland. This mythological 
Helluland appears to lie northwest and north of Iceland. 
The obygdir that joined North Greenland from the south 



52 The Norse Discovery of America 

lay west of Davis Strait and Bay. In Kroka-Ref s saga we 
read that the Icelander Ref went to North Greenland. He 
sailed past Hvitserk and then followed the west coast of 
Greenland northward. Far in the north he came to a fjord 
where the glaciers turned southward into the sea. The 
coast seemed to bend westward to encircle the bay. At the 
head of the fjord he built a hut. Later he sailed to the 
West Bygd, where he lived eight years. On account of 
murder he had to flee back north into the obygdir. There 
he built a block-house and lived with his four sons, till his 
enemy Gunnar from the West Bygd discovered him. 

The Icelandic geographies give us a similiar geography 
and throw further light on the situation. One of these, 
AM. 770c, which the eminent scholar BJ0rn Jonsson copied 
from an old parchment, begins with the southernmost and 
enumerates the lands northward to North Greenland, then 
he goes around Davis Bay, mentions the two Bygds in Green- 
land proper and finally the east coast and bays as far as 
Halogaland in Norway. 

On the west side of the great ocean, which reaches from 
Spain and which some call Ginnungagap, that spreads 
among the lands, are named northward first Vinland the 
Good, next is named Markland still northward, then are 
the obygdir, where the Skraelings live; then are yet obygdir 
as far as Greenland and there are two bygds, the West Bygd 
and the East Bygd; but thence there are bays (hafsbotnar) , 
J0kul mountains and obygdir which turn toward Halogaland. 

Fyrir vestan hit mikla haf fra Spania, er sumir kalla 
Ginnungagap, I'at ganga landa imilli )?a heitir til nor?>rs fyrst 
Vinland hit goc'^a, )?arnaest heitir Markland enn til norSrs, 
]>i eru obyg^ir er Skraelingjar byggja; )?a eru enn obyg?>ir 
til Graenlands, ok eru I'ar tvaer byg(>ir, VestrbygtS ok Austr- 
bygS, en sif>an eru ]>i hafsbotnar, J0klafj0ll ok obygSir 
e6 vikr vi5 Halogaland. Rafn, Antiq. Amer., p. 296. 

The Icelandic geographer here names in order the lands 
along the Atlantic coast from Newfoundland to Norway. 
As I understand the passage the geographer mentions first 
Newfoundland, then South Labrador, then North Labrador 
and then Bafl'in Land, which terminates in North Greenland. 
Then he passes around Davis Bay and comes in Greenland 



The Nurl/ii'tn GcuyrcipJiy 53 

proper to the two bygdir, the Vestrl Bygd and Eystri Bygd, 
and then going around Hvitserk he mentions on the east 
coast sea-bays, glacier mountains and wastes all the way to 
Norway. Barring the statements that Baffin Land joined 
North Greenland and that North Greenland reached into 
Russia, which was beyond their sailing and belonged to the 
domain of fancy, the description given by the old geographer 
is in the main correct and corresponds to our knowledge of 
those parts. 

Another part of the same manuscript, AM. 770c, has the 
same conception and names the same lands from north to 
south. Greenland here means North Greenland without 
excluding Greenland proper. Lying south of North Green- 
land we have Baffin Land, North Labrador^ South Labra- 
dor and Newfoundland. 

Nov/ there is, as stated, south of Greenland, which has 
bygds, deserts, obygdir and J0kuls, then Skraelings, then 
Markland, then Vinland the Good; next to it and a little 
back lies Albania, that is Hvitramannaland; thither form- 
erly were sailings from Ireland; Irishmen and Icelanders 
recognized there Are, the son of Mar and Kotla from 
Reykjanes, who had not been heard of for a long time and 
who had become a chieftain in the land. 

Nu eru, sem sagt var, su<^r af Graenlandi, sem bygt er, 
0raefi, obygSir ok J0klar, ]>i Skraelingjar, ]>^ Markland, 
]>i er Vinland hit go6a ; J^arnaest ok nokkut til baka ligger 
Albania, J^at er Hvitramannaland; J'angat var sigling ur 
Irlandi forSum; J^ar J'ektu yrskir menn ok islenzkir Ara 
Mars son ok K0tlu af Reykjanesi, er lengl ekki tilspur^ist, 
ok I'ar var >a til h0fdingja tekinn af landsm0nnum. 

The well known geography, Gripla, which Bj0rn Jons- 
son copied, has the same conception. It enumerates the 
countries in order from Bavaria to Vinland. In dealing 
with northern countries it starts v/ith Bjarmaland in Russia 
and describes the wastes that stretch all the way to Green- 
land. As it does not mention the West Bygd and the East 
Bygd, it is plain that this excursion goes only as far as North 
Greenland. From North Greenland the geographer goes 
back and takes a new start from the continent of Europe and 
follows the supposed coast of Greenland along the North 



54 The Norse Discovery of America 

Atlantic. At Hvntserk (Cape Farwell) he turns north to 
visit the East Bygd and West Bygd. From the west coast 
of Greenland he passes over to Baffin Land, which lies over 
against the bays of the west coast. Lastly he enumerates, 
as lying south of Baffin Land, Helluland, Markland and 
V inland. I shall cite only what concerns us here: 

North of Norway lies Finmarken. — Then the land turns 
northeast till one comes to Bjarmaland, which is tributary 
to Gardarike: From Bjarmaland lie wastes (obygciir) 
northward to Greenland. But in front (toward the sea) 
lie bays and the land (east coast of Greenland) turns south- 
west, there are j0kuls; and fjords and islands lie in front 
of the J0kuls; one J0kul they can not explore; another is a 
half month's journey away; a third is a week's journey 
away; the last is nearest the (East) Bygd and is called 
Hvitserk; then the land (the west coast) turns north; he 
who does not want to miss the Bygd must steer southwest. 
Gardar is the name of the bishop's seat at the head of 
Eiriksfjord. There is a church dedicated to St. Nicholas; 
there are twelve churches in the East Bygd and four in the 
West Bygd in Greenland. 

Now is to be told what lies over against Greenland 
opposite the bays that are mentioned: the land is called 
Furdustrandir. There the cold is so intense that it is not 
habitable, as far as men know; south of it lies Helluland, 
which is called Skraelingjaland; thence it Is but a short dis- 
tance to Vinland the Good, which some suppose is project- 
ing from Africa; between Vinland and Greenland is Gin- 
nungagap, which comes out of the sea, which is called Mare 
Oceanum, and surrounds the whole world. 

Finnm0rk (liggr) norSr af Noregi ; ]>k vikr til landnor<^rs 
ok austrs, aSr en kemr til Bjarmalands; I'at er skattgilt 
undir Gardariki : Fra Bjarmalandi liggja obyg^ir nor?>r allt 
til J'es, er Greenland kallast. En botnar ganga I'ar fyrir ok 
vikr landinu til utsuSr, eru J0klar ok fir^ir ok eyjar liggja 
uti fyrir J0klunum; fyrir einn J0kulinn geta J'eir ekki ran- 
saka^, fyrir annan er halfs mana^iar fer^i, fyrir f'rit^ja viku- 
fer?>; er sa naestr bygfiinni; J'ar heitir Hvitserkr; I'd vikr 
landinu til nor<^rs; en sii eigi vill missa bygSina, stefni hann i 
ulsu'^r. Gardar hcita biskupstol i botninum a Eirikstir<>i ; 



Tht' Norlhcrn Gcoyrapliy 55 

]?ar er kirkja vigS hinum helga Nicholas; XIT kirkjar eru 
a Graenlandi i hinni eystri byg^>, 1 1 II eru i vestri byg!^. 

Nu er at segja, hvat til mots vic> Grsenlandi gengr ur 
)?eim botnum, sem fyrir eru nefn^ir: Furdurstrandir heitir 
land, I'ar eru frost mikil, sva ekki er byggjanda, sva menu 
viti; su<^r fra er Helluland, )?at er kallat Skraelingjaland; J^a 
er skamt til Vinlands bins go<>a, er sumir menn zetla at gangi 
af Af rika ; milli Vinlands ok Graenlands er Ginnungagap, 
]?at gengr ur hafi \>y'\, er mare Oceanum heitir, I'at hverfr 
um allan heim. 

In this geography we see that Helluland does not lie to 
the south of Greenland proper with its two bygds, Vestri 
Bygd and Eystri Bygd, but south of Baffin Land, which is 
here called Furdustrandir and is not habitable and corre- 
sponds to Vestri Obygd. Unfortunately Baffin Land did 
not receive a name, because it seems to have been looked 
upon as a part of Greenland, and on that account was for- 
gotten long before Helluland, Markland and Vinland. Fur- 
dustrandir was not a name and means only the dangerous 
strands. The geographer calls all Labrador here Hellu- 
land, which, as far as we know, has always been the home 
of the Skraelings (Eskimos). Thus Gripla places on a line 
north and south Baffin Land, Labrador and Newfoundland 
and further west than Greenland. Between Vinland and 
Greenland lies Ginnungagap, an arrangement which also 
shows that Vinland lies farther west than Greenland. 

We come next to four short fragments of an Icelandic 
geography which have generally been accepted on their 
face value as giving us the Norse conception of Northern 
geography. P'rom these four fragments Storm thought 
that he could prove that Helluland, Markland and Vinland 
lay south of Greenland. One of these fragments he thought 
was very old and probably went back to Abbot Nicholas of 
Thingeyri ( d. 1159), who is known to have traveled much. 
Working under the same delusion A. A. Bj0rnbo constructed 
an absurd and impossible map of these regions. The map of 
Sigurd Stephansson, dated 1570, conveys a far more correct 
idea of the Norse conception and the relative location of the 
different lands"\ 

AM. 192. Af Bjarmalandi ganga l0nd obyg^ of nor^rstt. 



56 



The Norse Discovery of America 



unz vi(^tekr Graenland. Su<^r fra Graenlandi er Helluland, pa. 
er Markland; )?a er eigi langt til Vinlands ens go6a, er 
sumir menn aetla at gang! af Afrika; ok ef sva er, l^a er 
uthaf innfallanda a milli Vinlands ok Marklands. 

AM. 736. FVa Bjarmalandi ganga l0nd til obyg<^a of nor- 
Sraett allt til I'ess er Graenland tekr v'l^. Fra Graenlandi i 
su6r liggr Helluland, ]?a Markland; ]?ac>an er eigi langt til 
Vinlands, er sumir menn aetla at gangi af Afrika. 




THE NORSE CONCEPTION OF THE EARTH ACCORDING TO A. A. BJ0RNBO 

AM. 764. Af Bjarmalandi ganga l0nd obyg?) af nor^»ra?ct, 
unz Graenland tekr vi5. Su^^r fra Graenlandi liggr Helluland, 
pi Markland. J^atSan er eigi langt til Uinlandz. 

AM. 194. Su5r fra Graenlandi er Helluland, J'a er Mark- 
land: I'aSan er eigi langt til Vinlandz ens gof^a, er sumir 
menn aetla at ganga af Afrika ok ef sva er, pa. er uthaf inn- 
fallanda a milli Vinlandz ok Marklandz. 

AM. 192. From Bjarmaland extend desert lands north- 
ward till Greenland begins. South of Greenland is Hellu- 
land, then is Markland; thence it is not far to Vinland the 
Good, which some think goes out from Africa; and if 



The NortJwrn Geography SI 

that be so, then the outer sea enters between Vinland and 
Markland. 

AM, 736. From Bjarmaland extend desert lands north- 
ward until Greenland begins. South of Greenland lies Hel- 
luland, then Markland; thence it is not far to Vinland, which 
some men think goes out from Africa. 

AM. 764. From Bjarmaland extend desert lands north- 
ward, until Greenland begins. South of Greenland lies Hel- 
luland, then Markland. Thence it is not far to Vinland. 

AM. 194. South of Greenland is Helluland, then is 
Markland: thence it is not far to Vinland the Good, which 
some men think goes out from Africa, and if it is so, then 
the outer ocean enters between Vinland and Markland. 

It is related (further) that Thorfin Karlsefne cut a 
husasnotra and went later to find Vinland the Good, and 
came there, where they supposed that the land was, but did 
not acquire any knowledge of it nor obtain any of the riches 
of the land. Leif the Lucky was the first to find Vinland 
and then found merchants in distress at sea and by God's 
mercy saved their lives, and he introduced Christianity into 
Greenland. 

Three of these geographical fragments, AM. 192, 736 
and 764, start out from Bjarmaland anci pass over wastes 
or obygdir, to the mythological North Greenland, which in- 
cluded Baffin Land as its Vestri Obygd. Continuing from 
Greenland they go on south to Helluland, Markland and 
Vinland. The shortest fragment, 194, begins with Green- 
land and goes on like the other three south to Helluland, 
Markland and Vinland. In form and wording they are all 
nearly alike, so that there can be no doubt that all four come 
from the same source. It is agreed that some of them are 
from the fourteenth century and, if one or more is authentic, 
they are all authentic, as they are all essentially the same 
in form and contents. Whatever be their ultimate origin, 
they seem to come from some accepted outline used in giving 
instruction in geography. The method followed was to 
start at a given point and to mention the lands in succes- 
sion to the end of the run. As stated above, the Gripla 
starts with Bavaria and mentions the lands in succession 
northward to Bjarmaland and the uninhabited tracts to 



58 



TJic Norse Discovery of America 



North Greenland. Then taking a new start from Norway 
It follows the east and west coast of Greenland proper and 
crossing over to Baffin Land, or Furdustrandir, it connects 
with the former run in the Vestri Obygd (Baffin Land). 
Continuing from there it places Helluland, Markland and 
\^inland to the south. If we compare the four fragments 
in question with Gripla, we shall see that they, as far as they 
go, are almost identical in form and wording and conception. 
But the passages describing the east and west coasts of 
Greenland proper and Baffin Land have dropped out. The 



nac It 



y^,.^<LCUriim. lit hac maMu. 
tuumn hum ^ cx^'icah^ 

A }<', M ai il\f^ Anjfijir 
tm trun'f, ninndth'fi nmm 

U-hm eJMMmntumuk 

rttn prcvctJum, JiiOnaii 

««aniwn-'nut« I'vlucrrru 
yfri, Jed can CX rccen-hinvn 
Qjivmi r^lhjC, Mfi 
aufJinu-m Aaru an Jtmtrta 

It rtau> (jSian4um in-m.' 
fin^rum, ^£'c Aejiam. 
Qcrufdi l£ C^dmatJiJi^- 




^li/^iam cXcurrtnfem, 



\ iril HU V/& mff UIH ill l i U II J U ll l il l III! mi l ■! I K .IB I w II 



rWm /.^ ^«<\^'^n fnic!{.^i>nuJ in .W^""^ cXcurrrnfem. 

MAP OF SIGURD STEPHANSSON 

scribe, it seems, coming from Bjarmaland to the mythologi- 
cal North Greenland, omitted the passages having to do 
with the East and West Bygd and Furdustrandir and went 
on to mention Helluland, Markland and Vinland. This 
procedure was open to misunderstanding; but brought on no 
difficulty for several centuries, as we see from the map of 
Sigurd Stephansson and the wa-itings of Bj0rn Jonsson of 
Skardsa. It was only in recent years, when the Norse con- 
ception of the northern geography was completely misun- 



The Nurlhcni Geography 59 

derstood, that this error cropped out. This comparison 
with the Gripla brings out also the important fact that it 
too comes from an original as old as any of them, which 
has been doubted. 

There remains one Icelandic geography, Graenlandiae 
Vetus Chorographia, which has hitherto been considered so 
obscure and confused that little use has been made of it. 
Finnur Jonsson"^ prints the text without comment. It was 
copied by Bj0rn Jonsson from a very old codex and is not 
preserved in any other copy. It fills in the part of the geo- 
graphy of Greenland which the four preceding fragments 
omitted. After a few general remarks it starts on the east 
side of Greenland and mentions a number of places on the 
south point, and gives a long list of fjords and churches in 
the East Bygd. Then it seems to have treated the West 
Bygd in the same way, but for some reason Bjprn Jonsson 
failed to copy the fjords in the West Bygd. It is possible 
that the Ms. was in such a condition that he could not read 
the names of the fjords, which, however, are known to us 
from other sources. Finally this geography crosses Davis 
Strait and gives us a few names of localities in Baffin Land. 

For our purpose this geography is of the utmost impor- 
tance, because it shows the sailing route from the West 
Bygd to Baffin Land and confirms the sailing directions in 
the Karlsefne saga. Another point of great value is the 
indication of distances by days' rowing. No one has been 
able to obtain any sense from this passage, although the 
meaning is perfectly obvious. The text says that from Berg- 
l^orsfjord, which is the most northerly fjord in the East 
Bygd, it is six days' rowing with six men in a six-oared boat 
to the West Bygd, then instead of copying the fjords in the 
West Bygd, as he had done in the East Bygd, Bj0rn remarks, 
(I'd telr I'ar upp firdi) "here are enumerated the fjords." 
If instead of Bj0rn's remark we insert the ten fjords in the 
Vestri Bygd, as they are known to us from other sources, the 
statement becomes plain. Thus it appears that from Eyrar- 
fjord in the extreme north of the West Bygd to Lysufjord 
in the south the distance was six days' rowing, and again 
from Lysufjord to Karlbuda (in Baffin Land) was another 
six days' rowing. 



60 TJie Norse' Discovery of America 

GR^NLANDI^ VETUS CHOROGRAPHIA 

Graenland horfir i vtsudiir. Syndst er Heri0lfsnes, enn 
Hvarfs-gnipa nsst firl vestann. l^aengad kom Eyrekur hinn 
Raudi leingst og liest l^ae kominn firl botn Eyreks fiardar. 
J'ar er stiarna er hafhverf heitir a austann verdu landi, I'ae 
Spalsund >£e Drangey. J^ae Solvadalur hann er bygdur austast. 
)7as Tofafj0rdr ]?as Melrackanes. f'ae Herlulfs fiardar kirkia, 
]7ae Hellis ey ok Hellis eyiar fiordr. )?ae ketils fiordr, tvaer 
kirkiur, ]>?£ hrakbiarnar ey Lund-ey, Syllenda af Eyreks- 
firdi, J'ae Alptafiordr, Siglufiordr kirkia, Hrafnsfiordr. f^ae 
geingr Sliettuf. af Hafursfirdi, Hornafiordr, ofundinn 
fiordr. f^ar er Byskups st0ll (J'ae verdr hann ad vera i botni 
Eyreksfiardar) ]?ae Eyreks fiardar kirkia, af honum geingr 
austkarsfi0rdr kirkia, Hafgrimsfi0rdr. Hvalseyarfi0rdr H-f. 
H-f. H-f. ur Dyrnesi, ]>?e. isafiordr, J'ar af geingur Utibliks f. 
]>?£ Stranda f. l^ae eru Midfirder naest bygder (bygdum), I'ae 
heitir einn kollu f. annar dyra. f. ]?ae l7orvaldzfi0rdr. Steins- 
fi0rdr. Berg>ors f. ('ae er VI daga r0Sr VI m0nnum 
til vestre bygdar sexaeringi {\>-£ telr l^ar upp firdi) 
]>?£. er iir hinni vestre bygd til lysu fiardar VI daga r0<^r. 
f^adan sex daga y^^y til Karlbiida, >ae III dag (a) r0t5r 
til Biarneyar XII daga r0<^r umhverfiss — ey Eisunes Adanes 
firir nor^ann. 

OLD CHOROGRAPHY OF GREENLAND 

Greenland (as seen from Iceland) turns toward the 
southwest. Most southerly is Herjolfsnes and Hvarfs- 
gnipa next on the west. There Eirik the Red went farthest 
and is said to have gone to the head of Eiriksfjord. On the 
east side of the land where it is called Hafhverf (sea dis- 
trict) is Star (the sounds come together in a five-pointed, 
star-like figure), then Spalsund, then Drangey. Then Sol- 
vadal, it is built farthest east. Then Tofafjord, then Mel- 
rackanes. Then Herjolfsfjord's church, then Hellisey and 
Helliseyarfjord. Then Ketilsfjord, two churches, then 
Hrakbjarnarey, Lundey, Syllenda of Eiriksfjord, then 
Alptafjord, Siglufjord church, Hrafnsfjord. Then Sliettu- 
fjord goes out of Hafursfjord, Hornafjord, Ofundfjord. 



The NortJicni Geography 61 

There is Bishop's seat (then it comes to be at the head of 
Eiriksfjord) , then Eiriksfjord's church, from it goes Aust- 
karsfjord church, Hafgrimsfjord. Hvalseyarfjord. H — f. 
H — f. H — f. from Dyrnes, then Isafjord, thence goes Uti- 
bhksfjord, then Strandafjord, then the Midfjords are 
built nearest. Then one is Kollufjord, another Dyrafjord, 
then Thorvaldsfjord. Steinsfjord. Bergl^orsfjord, then 
there is six days' rowing with six rfien in a six-oared boat to 
Vestre Bygd. (Then the fjords are mentioned from south 
to north). Then is Lysufjord, Hornafjord, Andafjord, 
Svartifjord, Agnafjord, Rangafjord, Leirufjord, Lodins- 
fjord, Straumfjord and Eyiarfjord. Then there is from 
that (most northerly fjord of) Vestre Bygd back to Lysu- 
fjord six days' rowing, thence to Karlbuda (in Baffin Land) 
is six days' rowing, then there are three days' rowing to 
Bjarney, twelve days' rowing round — ey Eysunes adanes on 
the north side. 

As the distances south and north are already given, the 
distance to Karlbuda must needs be westward. The gen- 
erally accepted identification of Karlbuda with Disco Island 
far up the coast of Greenland we see is impossible. The 
Bjarney mentioned in this passage is no doubt the island 
from which Karlsefne set sail for Helluland. It belonged 
to the Vestri Obygd. This passage alone seems to furnish 
conclusive evidence that the Norsemen discovered Baffin 
Land. 

As it appears from this investigation, all the Icelandic 
geographies are agreed that Helluland and Markland lie 
south of Baffin Land and consequently southwest from 
Greenland proper. Even the mythological sagas, which 
are fictitious, assign to Helluland the corrrect location. 
Though the stories are fictitious, the geography, as 
in our novels, may be reliable. In 0rvar-Odd's saga we 
are told that they sailed into the Greenland sea and then 
southwest to Helluland: Si6an sigla I'eir I'artil er l^eir komu 
i Graenlandshaf : snua J?a su^r ok vestr fyrir landit — sigla l^eir 
nu I'artil er J^eir koma til Hellulands, ok liggja inn a fjorSinn 
Skugga. 

The same view we find also in a paraphrase of the Karls- 
efne saga, AM. 770c: Hann (Karlsefne) sigldi suSv^estr 



62 The Norse Discovery of America 

fyrir Gri^nland, l^artil landkostr batnaM meir ok meir. That 
the F'lateyarbok places Helluland in a southwest direction 
from Greenland appears from the course that Bjarne Her- 
jolfsson steered from the mainland. 

In passing I shall also refer to the celebrated Bj0rn Jons- 
son of Skardsa. Although he lived several centuries after 
these events, he was extremely well versed in the old sagas 
and had access to many sources which are now lost. In Bar- 
dar saga Snaefelsass he makes the following remark regard- 
ing Greater Helluland or North Greenland: (^etta kollum 
Veer nordur obygder Grasnlandz ok nordur Graenland ok 
Helluland hit mikla. This we call the wastes of Greenland 
and North Greenland and Greater Helluland. 

Regarding the northern wastes which continue into Baf- 
fin Land he says: hier heyrist at kalladr ero Graenlands 
obygder eirnin hier nordur i landnordurshafi, lyka sem ves- 
tur Graenlands, obygdir milium vestre bygdar a Grsnlandi ok 
litlu Hellulands edur Marklands. Here we hear that they 
are called Greenland's obygder even north there in the north- 
east sea, they end as the obygds of West Greenland between 
the West Bygd in Greenland and Little Helluland or Mark- 
land. The land lying on the way from Godthaab to North 
Labrador can only be Baffin Land. Baffin Land seems some- 
what elusive, because it has so many names. Bj0rn calls it 
Vestur Graenlands obygder, Vetus Chorographia calls it 
Karlbuda, Gripla Furdustrandir, and the old sagas Vestre 
Obygd. 

The existence of Baffin Land in the geography of the 
North is not only important in itself as showing the reach 
of the Norsemen toward the west; but it is indispensable for 
the understanding of the sagas and explains in a satisfactory 
way why Karlsefne sailed to Vinland by way of the West 
Bygd. In order to view the sagas in the right light, we 
have now reviewed all the know^n geographies. To get the 
right point of view it is necessary to take all these things 
into consideration. Rafn went astray by making too much 
ado about the mythological sagas. He allowed North 
Greenland to reach ten degrees farther south than Cape 
Farewell and to continue over Baffin Land and Labrador to 



The Northern Geography 63 

the Strait of Belle Isle. Storm went astray hy placing Hel- 
luland, Markland and Vinland south of Greenland, thus 
distorting the entire geography of the sagas. As long as 
the conception of the lands from which the expeditions set 
out were so misty and uncertain, one could hardly expect that 
any definite agreement could be reached concerning the 
newly discovered land. It is manifest that the Vinland 
sagas were plain and evident to the Norsemen, because they 
had a definite knowledge of the places mentioned. We 
also will be able to read them with the same interest if we 
are able to solve the difficulties connected with the local 
names. The uncertain geography of the north has made 
the sagas appear sort of intangible. 

The far-reaching discoveries of the Norsemen toward 
the west had enlarged the geography of the world. Before 
the advent of the Norsemen geographers had only a faint 
knowledge of lands north of the British Isles. But as soon as 
the Norse settled the Faroes, Iceland^'' and Greenland, they 
brought them to the knowledge of the rest of the world and 
introduced them into commercial intercourse with western 
Europe. The outer ocean, which is supposed to surround 
the whole world, was henceforth thought to pass beyond 
Greenland. This view we Hnd expressed in the King's Mir- 
ror and on the Clavus Nancy map of 1427. But the Norse 
discoveries on the coast of America fared differently. They 
had little or nothing to offer which commerce then required 
and for that reason did not get into touch with Europe. The 
sagas mention as advantages in Vinland that the soil was 
good and that the land abounded in timber, game and fish 
of all kinds; but there was no lack of these things in wes- 
tern Europe at that time, and the way to Vinland was long 
and dangerous. The author of the King's Mirror, who 
gives us a full and thorough description of Greenland and 
Iceland, does not even make mention of Helluland, Mark- 
land and Vinland. Beyond Greenland and Iceland the 
Norse discoveries on the east coast of America were barely 
known. The Icelandic geographies, however, furnish many 
descriptions of the east coast of America, which agree with 
the sagas and tally with our present knowledge of these 



64 The Nor St' Discovery of J tn erica 

localities. West of Greenland lies Baffin Land, which the 
Norsemen called Vestre Obygd, and which they thought 
joined Greenland in the far north. 

To the south lay Labrador, which they called Helluland 
and Markland. Not far from Markland, with a narrow 
body of water between, was situated Vinland, beginning at 
Kjalarnes and extending southward no one knew how far. 
Karlsefne had gone south as far as Straumfjord and Hop. 
What conditions prevailed farther south they had no knowl- 
edge of, as they had not gone farther. As far as they sailed 
and were acquainted, the land was on the west and the ocean 
on the east. A couple of geographies state that some were 
of the opinion that Vinland was a continuation of Africa. 
But that was only a hypothesis or theory, which they could 
not verify. Still this theory is important, as it shows us 
the difference between what they knew and what some sup- 
posed. They knew that Hop (Vinland) was situated far- 
thest south in line with Helluland and Markland and that 
Africa was south of Europe. Some thought that Vinland con- 
nected with Africa in the manner that Greenland continued 
into Russia. A. A. Bj0rnbo assumes even that this hypothe- 
sis was generally accepted and incorporated it into a map, 
which he supposes conveys the general views. That this was 
not the only view appears from 770c, where Ginnungagap 
between America and Europe connects with the great ocean 
to the south. 

Am. 192 draws inferences from this hypothesis as it 
continues. "If Vinland extends from Africa, then the outer 
ocean comes in between Markland and Vinland." If the 
ocean were thus closed on the south and came in only be- 
tween Markland and Vinland, they must also have thought 
that the ocean was closed off on the north, which could not be 
the case if Helluland and Markland were islands as drawn 
by Bj0rnbo. The supposition was rather that on a line far- 
ther west the land was somewhat continuous from Mark- 
land to Russia. Since all Icelanders knew that there was no 
land south of Greenland and that there always had been 
an open passage for ships past Hvitserk, it is evident that 



The Northern Geography GS 

Greenland in the fragmentary geographies means North 
Greenland. 

From these accounts we see that the Icelandic geogra- 
phers had in the main a correct idea of the location of the 
lands in question. It is hardly credible that they could 
have reached these conclusions and given these descriptions 
unless they had sailed these waters and seen these shores. 



EIRIK THE RED 

THE Vinland voyages begin with Eirilc the Red and the 
discovery of Greenland. As Shetland, the Faroe 
Islands and Iceland were discovered from the Scandinavian 
countries, so Greenland now became the starting point for 
a series of new discoveries to the southwest. From Green- 
land they reached Baffin Land, then Labrador and points 
farther south. All Vinland voyages start from Greenland. 
Greenland is not so far removed from the American con- 
tinent, but that a good vessel in the summer season can pass 
from one land to another without serious danger in two 
to three days. Eirik the Red is the first in a line of Green- 
land explorers and seems to have possessed rare geographi- 
cal insight and to have been the soul in these voyages of 
discovery. He was an able sailor and acted with much tact 
and prudence. At his home in Greenland were planned 
all the Vinland voyages. To give expression to the interest 
that Eirik took in the Vinland voyages one saga relates that 
he was on the point of taking the command of the first expe- 
dition, when he was prevented by a mishap, and the other 
saga relates that he sailed on the fourth expedition with his 
son, Thorstein. The lasting achievement of Eirik the Red, 
however, was the discovery and building of Greenland. 

In the discovery of the line of islands that reach from 
Scotland to Iceland, the Norsemen followed either in the 
wake of the Irish or they chanced upon them as they drifted 
about in storms on the ocean. But the finding of Greenland 
is the first of a series of systematic voyages of discovery. 
The Norsemen do not follow in the wake of others and 
they set out with a definite purpose. They go to sea only 
after collecting all available information and maturing their 



Eirik the Red 61 

plans. Eirik the Red took the lead in these daring enter- 
prises and supported them with word and deed. 

Eirik the Red descended from a wealthy and powerful 
family in Norway. His father's name was Thorvald. Both 
were obliged to leave Jaederen on account of murder and 
went to Iceland, which had now been settled for about one 
hundred years. The best land had already been taken and 
Thorvald and Eirik settled on the Hornstrands in north- 
western Iceland. They took land about Drangavik and 
settled at Drangar, which lies north of the polar circle. By 
Hunafloi and Hhrutafjord they could reach Haukadal and 
the district east of Breidifjord. In the long winter nights of 
this northern clime he had ample opportunity to think and 
dream of distant lands. From sailors who had been driven 
far out upon the sea in hunting seals and whales Eirik 
heard many strange tales of adventures. When he was later 
forced to leave the country he acts with a decision and reso- 
lution that shows that he had considered these matters be- 
fore. His father Thorvald died at Drangar. The saga 
does not mention how long they lived in the north of Ice- 
land. Eirik is supposed to have been born about 950 and 
was now at least twenty-five years old. Now he married 
Thorhild, or Thjodhild, who before had been married to 
Thorbj0rn from Haukadal. She vi'as the daughter of Jor- 
und Atleson and Thorbj0rn Knarrabringa. It is probable 
that she changed her name to Thjodhild, when she accepted 
the Christian faith, as Thorhild savored strongly of the 
most heathen of the northern gods. It stands to reason 
that they could not call the church that she had built at 
Brattalid Thorhilde Church. The Flateyarbok, which 
seems to preserve the older traditions, calls her Thorhild, 
while the Karlsefne saga, beginning after the introduction of 
Christianity with the voyage of Karlsefne, calls her Thjod- 
hild. Now Eirik moved to Haukadal and settled at Eirik- 
stad near Vatnshorn lying east of Hvamsfjord and being 
one of the finest tracts in Iceland. To judge from the many 
places in Iceland and Greenland that bear his name, Eirik 
must have been a conspicuous figure in his day. There 
Eirik lived till about 979. According to one tradition Leif 
was born there. While they cleared the land, Eirik's slaves 



68 



The Norse Discovery of America 



caused a landslide to fall upon the house of a neighbor by 
the name of ValJ'jof. To revenge his death Eyjolf Saur, 
ValJ?jof's relative, killed the slaves. Eirik thereupon killed 
Eyjolf Saur and Holmgang-Rafn. Eyjolf's relatives 
brought complaint against Eirik and he was outlawed from 
Haukadal. Eirik went westward and took possession of 
some islands at the mouth of Hvamsfjord in Breidifjord. 
He lived the first winter in Suderey. He lent Thorgest at 




EIRIKSVAC;, EYX.NEV IN HVAMSFJORD 



Breidabolstad his honor posts. Later he went to Eyxney 
and settled at Eirikstad. He demanded of Thorgest the 
return of the honor posts, and when he did not receive them 
he went in the fall of 980 to Breidabolstad and took them. 
Thorgest hurried after him and a battle was fought near 
the fence at Drangar. Besides others, two sons of Thorgest 
fell here. Feeling ran high, and to safeguard themselves 
both retained a band of armed men about them in the winter. 
The Eyrbyggja saga" mentions the death of Thorgest's two 
sons, when Eirik carried off the honor posts in the fall, and 
states that both men retained armed followers and made 



Eirik the Red 69 

several attacks against each other in the winter. The Flat- 
eyarbok states that since Thorgest did not return the honor 
posts, there were hostilities and fights, as told in the Eirik's 
saga (ger'Sust deilur ok bardagar meS l^eim >orgesti sem 
segir i s0gu Eiriks). The Karlsefne saga, which some think 
is the lost Eirik's saga, mentions only the fight by the fence 
at Drangar. Styr Thorgrimsson, Eyjolf of Sviney, the sons 
of Thorbrand of Alptafjord and Thorbj0rn Vivilsson, sup- 
ported Eirik the Red. The sons of Thord Gellis, Thorgeir 
from Hitterdal, Aslak from Langedal and his son Huge 
supported Thorgest. The case came up before the Thors- 
nes thing in the spring of 981. The meeting was well 
attended. Eirik was equipping his ship in Eiriksvag in 
Eyxney and was not at the thing. Styr had charge of his 
interests at the thing and won over as many men as he could 
from Thorgest. He asked Snorre Gode not to accompany 
Thorgest against Eirik after the meeting, promising in 
return to stand by him on some other occasion. On account 
of this promise Snorre remained neutral in this case. Eirik 
was outlawed for three years. Thorgest set out with many 
ships and hunted for Eirik among the islands; but Eyjolf 
concealed him in Dimunarvag till Eirik's friends arrived. 
When Eirik was ready, Styr, Eyjolf and Thorbj0rn Vivils- 
son followed him beyond the islands. Eirik told them that 
he had in mind to seek the land that Gunnbj0rn, the son 
of Ulf-Krake, had seen when he was driven westward over 
the sea. If he found the land he would come back to his 
friends and would support them as they had supported him, 
in case he was able and if they needed his assistance. They 
parted as the best of friends. 

Eirik sailed westward from Snefellsj0kul on the route 
which since bore the name Eirlksstefna. It is possible that 
he possessed more definite information about a land in the 
west than the tradition of Gunnbj0rn. The decision with 
which he acted shows that he had carefully considered the 
subject and felt reasonably certain of good results. Interest 
In geography was at that time great in Iceland. A man 
who was interested in geography and discoveries would 
naturally gather information on that subject where he found 
it and piece it together in such a way as to make it useful 



70 



The Norse Discovery of America 



and serve his end. He found the land and came from the 
ocean in front of Midj0kul, which, as it appears, was later 
called Blaserk. He followed the coast southward to see 
whether the land was habitable. Then he sailed westward 
past Hvitserk and Hvarf and came to what was later called 
the East Bygd. The first summer he explored the East Bygd. 
Since his plan was to colonize the country, he endeavored in 
these three years of exile to become acquainted with the 
conditions prevailing in Greenland. The first winter he 
passed on Eiriksey, near the middle of the West Bygd. The 




EIRIKSFJORD, FROM BRATTALID 



Hauksbok, AM, 544, here reads: near the East Bygd; 
but the general sense of the passage as well as the reading 
in the Landnama favor the West Bygd. In the spring, 
while the ice yet blocked the sea and only left an open pas- 
sage along the coast, he sailed back to the East Bygd and 
into Eiriksfjord, where he chose a homestead for himself. 
Now he had acquired a general knowledge of both Bygds 
and was able to make an intelligent choice. In the summer 
he sailed to the Vestre Obygd, where he remained a long 
time and assigned names to places far and wide. 



Eirik the Red 71 

Texts of the fifteenth century and later make Eirik pass 
the first winter on Eiriksey in the East Bygd, select his home- 
stead on Eiriksfjord in the spring and go to the West Bygd 
in the summer. Late copyists in Iceland have changed Ves- 
tre Obygd, which they did not understand, to Vestre Bygd, 
which was simple and intelligible. To avoid contradiction 
they then let Eirik spend the first winter in the East Bygd. 
All editors and commentators favor this reading, which is 
not in accord with the best and oldest texts. The work of 
Eirik the Red in Greenland during the three years of exile 
they divide as follows : The first summer he explores the 
East Bygd and spends the first winter on Eiriks0y in the 
East Bygd. The second summer he surveys the West Bygd 
and the third summer he explores the west coast as far north 
as Snefell. The Landnama, which is the oldest and most 
reliable text, reads: i ena vestri obygS; Flateyarbok: i hina 
vestri UbygS; AM. 557 : i hina vestari ubygS. The Hauks- 
bok omits these words. My opinion is, that the oldest text 
Is correct and that Vestri Obygd here means Baffin Land. 
That there is sufficient evidence to support this contention, 
I have shown elsewhere. This interpretation clears up the 
difficulty and places the following events in the proper rela- 
tion to each other. From the West Bygd Eirik again set out 
upon the sea, as he had done from Iceland, to see whether 
there were other lands nearby. As the distance is not 
greater than that one can see land in a couple of days, it is 
natural to suppose that he made this excursion. 

The second winter he passed on the Eiriksholms, near 
Hvarfsgnipa. 

The third summer he sailed all the way north to Snefell. 
Where Snefell was located is not known. The context 
shows that it was far north. The report from 1266 men- 
tions a Snefell one long day's rowing north of Kroksfjardar- 
heide. Then he sailed back to the East Bygd and went into 
Hrafnsfjord and thereupon he is also said to have gone to 
the head of Eiriksfjord. It would seem that he had not 
before gone to the end of this fjord and that he now ex- 
plored it and sailed its whole length. This statement has 
always been taken to mean that Eirik supposed that the 
Hrafnsfjord cut as far or farther into the land than the 



72 The Norse Discovery of America 

EIriksfjord. A glance at the map will convince any one 
that neither Eirik nor any Greenlander familiar with the 
East Bygd could for a moment have entertained such a 
notion, the Eiriksfjord being several times as long. It seems 
to me that the obvious meaning of the statement is what I 
have given above. Gr0nlandiae Vetus Chorographia cites 
merely the statement about Eiriksfjord without making any 
comparison with Hrafnsf jord, which is correct, f^aengad kom 
Eyrekur hinn Raudi leingst og liest I'a kominn firi botn 
Eireks fiarSar. The third winter Eirik spent on Eiriks0y 
at the mouth of Eiriksfjord. The fourth summer he sailed 
back to Iceland, came to land in Breidifjord and stayed over 
winter with Ingolf at Holmlater-^ 

After an absence of three years Eirik returned to Breidi- 
fjord from a successful expedition. With many difficulties 
and small means he had accomplished a great and mem- 
orable work. He had discovered Greenland and with great 
ability and good fortune had explored unknown and dan- 
gerous waters. With a small vessel he had in three years 
seen as much of Greenland as was known for several cen- 
turies after its second discovery. Eirik had already before 
been a conspicuous figure in the most intelligent section of 
Iceland. It was well known that he had been outlawed three 
years before at the Thorsnes thing and that he had sailed 
westward to search for the land that Gunnbj0rn had seen, 
when he was driven about on the sea, and that he intended to 
return if he found the land. His expectations had been 
fulfilled. He called the land Greenland, because he thought 
a good name would induce people to go and settle it. His 
plans were now to get people with him and occupy Green- 
land. He set forth the advantages of the land. It had 
an abundant supply of game, seals, whales, bears and many 
other animals. He permitted nothing to interfere with his 
great object of settling Greenland. He forgot his feud with 
Thorgest and made peace. He succeeded in persuading peo- 
ple to join him. In the spring twenty-five ships set out from 
Breidifjord and Borgarfjord. From this and other sagas 
we see that there were many dangers connected with a voy- 
age to Greenland. Some of these ships were lost at sea, 
others returned to Iceland; fourteen reached Greenland'^ 



Eirik llic Red 73 

EIrik the Red made his home at Brattalid. Most of his 
followers settled in the East Bygd; some went to the West 
Bygd. Fjords and valleys received their names from the 
original settlers who were called Landnamamen as in Ice- 
land. Thus arose from the names of the settlers the names 
Herjolfsfjord, Herjolfsnes, Ketilsfjord, Hrafnsfjord, Sol- 
vedal, Einarsfjord, Hafgrimsfjord and Arnlaugsfjord. 
Sometimes they took their names from places in Iceland, 
whence the settlers came, as Alptafjord and Siglufjord. 





BKATTALID 



In the following years we get now and then a glimpse of 
Eirik the Red in Greenland. He appears to have main- 
tained order and to have governed the land with tact and 
wisdom. The Icelandic laws were in force in Greenland. 
The Althing, or Parliament, met at Gardar on the isthmus 
between Eiriksfjord and Einarsfjord. Eirik lived in the 
style of a chieftain at Brattalid. When ships arrived from 
Iceland or Norway, he and his followers would mount their 
horses and ride down to the harbor and trade with them and 
often he invited the merchants to Brattalid. If powerful 
chieftains or friends like Snorre Gode, Thorbj0rn Vivilsson 
or Thorfin Karlsefne visited him, he appeared to be ex- 
tremely hospitable and generous. Gudrid, Thorbj0rn Vivils- 
son's daughter, esteemed Eirik highly. When her father 



74 The Norse Discovery of America 

Thorbj0rn and her husband Thorstein were dead and she 
was left alone In Greenland, Eirik cared for her as a father. 
In 999 Eirik's oldest son Leif was grown up and made a 
voyage to Norway. As sons of noble families in Iceland 
were wont to do, he went abroad to see the world and to 
acquire courtly manners. That he sailed directly to Norway 
without touching at Iceland or the Faroes, shows that this 
course was already known and that the Norsemen were bold 
sailors to cut across the ocean without chart or compass. 
That Leif was the first one to attempt this course, as Nansen 
assumes, is not likely, though the course is here mentioned 
for the first time. We hear that he had bad weather and 
was driven out of his course to the Hebrides and arrived 
at Nidaros (Throndhjem) only in the fall. When King 
Olaf Trygvason returned from Halogaland and settled for 
the winter in Nidaros Leif met the King and stayed with 
him during the winter. The king thought much of Leif 
and had him and his crew baptized and instructed in the 
Christian faith. Hearing that Leif intended to return to 
Greenland in the summer, he charged him to introduce 
Christianity there. The Flateyarbok relates that Leif was 
baptized and stayed with the king in the winter. It does 
not mention how and when he returned to Greenland, but 
goes on to say that in the winter of 1001-02 he was in Green- 
land and visited Bjarne at Herjolfsnes and bought his ship. 
There can be no doubt as to the course of events. All are 
agreed that the same summer (1000) king Olaf went 
to Vendland, Leif sailed to Greenland to introduce Christian- 
ity there. That is in fact the story as told in the paper Ms. 
770c, which Bj0rn Jonsson copied from an old codex: 
"Fourteen years afterwards Leif Eiriksson made a voyage 
from Greenland to Norway, and King Olaf Trygvason had 
him and his men baptized and he received much honor from 
the King in the winter; later he sailed back to Greenland to 
introduce Christianity (meS Kristni), and it has maintained 
itself there since." Thus we should also understand the 
Kristni saga, which is the oldest account that we have of 
these events: "That summer sailed King Olaf from the 
country south to Vendland. Then he sent Leif Eiriksson 
to Greenland to order the faith introduced there; thereupon 



Eirik the Red 



75 



Leif found Vinland the Good; he found also men on a ship- 
wreck at sea, wherefore he was called Leif the Lucky." 
This account does not say that Leif found Vinland on his 
return from Norway. The events come here in the same 
order as in the Flateyarbok, if we translate I'd' with there- 
upon, afterwards, later, as we often do. The Kristni saga 
is about one hundred years older than the accounts which 




IGALIKO (GARDAR) 

On the left meeting place of the Althing, on the right ruins of the Bishop's House and Cathedral 

maintain that Leif found \'inland on his return voyage from 
Norway. 

Regarding the discovery of Vinland two accounts came 
into existence. One originated in the home of Eirik the Red, 
was current in Greenland, later migrated to Iceland and ap- 
peared there in nearly the form that we now have it in the 
Flateyarbok. The other account grew up in Iceland in the 
families of Thorfin Karlsefne and Snorre Gode and was 
based on the oral report which these men made on their 
return to Iceland. All who have written down the latter 
account were either related or intimately connected with 



76 The Norse Discovery of America 

Snorre or Karlsefne and show the influence of these power- 
ful families. It is reasonable, therefore, that in matters hav- 
ing to do with Leif and Thorvald, we follow the first ac- 
count, as it is given in the Flateyarbok, and that in matters 
referring to Karlsefne we should follow the second account, 
which we have in the Karlsefne saga. It stands to reason 
that each one of these families knew more about their own 
ancestors than about those of other families. Whenever the 
Karlsefne saga relates the occurrences on Karlsefne's voy- 
age, it is within its own sphere and should be accepted, but 
whenever it touches upon the story of Bjarne, Leif or Thor- 
vald, it trenches upon the saga that purports to tell their 
exploits. If we follow a simple rule of this kind, we escape 
many pitfalls. It is not surprising to find the order of 
sequence broken in events which have no logical connection 
and are not controlled by other contemporaneous events. 

Leif promised the king to go on his errand. As the king 
went south on his last voyage, Leif sailed for Greenland 
and arrived safe at Brattalid, where all were glad to wel- 
come him home. He bade them accept the Christian faith 
and laid before them the message from the king, who was 
popular in Greenland. Eirik was slow to abandon his old 
belief, but Thorhild accepted readily the new faith and at a 
short distance from the houses had a church built, which 
after her was called Thjodhild church. All her children 
accepted Christianity. In Eirik it seems to have been a bit 
of political shrewdness not to outrun his own people in a 
matter which he foresaw would conquer in the end. With 
Norway and Iceland to point back to and the chieftain's 
family on its side, Christianity made rapid strides 
in Greenland. Before the end of the year Christi- 
anity was probably accepted by most of them, at least out- 
wardly. It required time to change their principles and 
ways of thinking, but that became the work of the priests^". 
Leif had carried out the order of the king and was now at 
liberty to take up something else. 



FLATEYARBOK 

T> JARNE was the son of Herjolf and lived between Vaag 
■^ and Reykjanes In Iceland. Bjarne was a gifted man, 
took to the sea early and soon won wealth and honor. 
Every other winter he was either abroad or stayed with his 
father. The last winter that Bjarne was in Norway, Herjolf 
broke up his home in Iceland and sailed in the spring with 
Eirik the Red to Greenland and settled on Herjolfsnes. 
When Bjarne in the summer landed at Eyrar in Iceland 
and learned that his father had gone to Greenland, he 
thought that it was great news. He refused to unload the 
ship and wanted to keep up his custom of spending the win- 
ter with his father, in case the crew was willing to accom- 
pany him. All consented and, when they were ready, went 
to sea. They sailed 3 days till Iceland disappeared under 
the water. Then the breeze failed them and they got north 
wind and mists and for many days they did not know where 
they were. When the storm came on, they lowered the 
sail so as not to be driven too far out of their course. The 
following account shows that they must have been east of 
Newfoundland when the storm ceased and the fog lifted. 
Nothing indicates that on the voyage northward they sailed 
in a northeasterly direction past Nova Scotia or 300 miles 
east past Newfoundland. It is not likely that Bjarne drove 
past Cape Race, which is the point that projects farthest into 
the ocean. 

In order to have a starting point we shall assume that 
Bjarne came with an east wind and had his first landfall a 
little south of 48'' N. Sufficient reasons for this assumption 
will appear in the course of the argument. 

Thereupon they saw the sun and recognized the direc- 



Flateyarhok 



79 




EAST COAST OK NEWFOUNDLAND. NEAR ST. JOHNS 




TRINITY BAY, NEWFOUNni.AND 



80 The Norse Discovery of America 

tions. They hoisted sail and sailed that day — as it appears 
with an east wind — till they saw land. They debated among 
themselves what land it was. Bjarne said it was not Green- 
land and advised that they should sail close up to the land. 
Soon they saw that it was mountainous and wooded and had 
small heights. They kept the land on the port (left) side 
and let the sail turn landward. 

Thus they turned the prow northward and with the sail 
turned toward the land, which was on their left, they fol- 
lowed the coast northward. Writers have misunderstood 
this account and supposed that, as soon as they had examined 
this land they went again out upon the deep and remained 
out of sight of land till they reached the second land and 
there repeated the same performance. If that conception 
were correct, it would require two or three large islands off 
the east coast and not a continuous coastline. 

Thereupon they sailed two doegr till they saw the second 
land. To Pjarne this did not appear to be Greenland any 
more than the former; for there are said to be large glaciers 
in Greenland. They approached the land and saw that it 
was flat and wooded. The wind fell and the men wished 
to go ashore to obtain water and fuel; but Bjarne was of 
the opinion that they did not need either and ordered to 
hoist sail. 

We find in Rymbegla that a doegr is equal to two degrees 
of latitude, or 120 geographical miles. Two doegr, then, 
corresponds to four degrees and takes us into the Strait of 
Belle Isle. The wind there generally blows in the direction of 
the strait, either from the northeast or southwest. When 
I was there in August, 1914, the wind blew constantly for a 
week from the southwest. As the east wind that brought 
Bjarne to the strait died away, he found in the strait a 
southwest wind, that sped him all the way to Greenland. 

They hoisted sail, turned the prow from the land and 
sailed with a breeze from the southwest three doegr and 
saw the third land; but that land was high and mountain- 
ous with jocles. Neither here did Bjarne want to go on 
land, since he thought this land was useless. They lowered 
(shifted) not the sail, held on along the coast and saw that it 
was an island; still they set the stern against the land and 



Flateyarbok 



81 



sailed out upon the main with the same wind. As the wind 
increased, Bjarne ordered to take a reef in the sail and not 
to sail more than the ship and the rigging could stand. Now 
they went four doegr and saw the fourth land, which Bjarne 
thought most like what he had heard of, Greenland. They 
landed at Herjolfsnes, where his father dwelt. Bjarne re- 
mained there as long as his father lived and made his home 
there afterwards. 




LABRADOR COAST NEAR CAPE MUGFORD 



Bjarne came from the south and, crossing the strait, he 
pointed the prow of his ship right against the Labrador 
coast. To continue his course northward and skirt the 
Labrador coast he had to turn the prow northeast and to 
set the sail to suit the southwest wind that he found in the 
strait. Thus they passed southern or flat Labrador and 
reached at Port Manvers, 57° N., the high and mountain- 
ous North Labrador. Three doegr, or six degrees of lati- 
tude, took them to the mighty promontory of Cape Mug- 
ford, which lies on an island near 58° N. and towers almost 
perpendicularly 3,000 feet above the sea. Nearby lies the 



82 



The Norse Discovery of America 



still higher Bishops Mitre and a row of snowy peaks to the 
northwest. Between Cape Mugford and the mainland 
winds the narrow Mugford Tickle, which divides the cape 
from the mainland and makes it an island. This tallies 
closely with the description in the saga and clears up a dif- 
ficult passage. These mountains have much snow at all 
times of the year. As seen in photographs taken in the 




OGUALIK ISLAND, 2,500 FEET HIGH. SEPTEMBER 10 

month of August, large masses of snow appear even at that 
time of the year. As they drew near Cape Mugford, the 
wind began to fall and the crew wanted to go ashore; but 
Bjarne refused to lower the sail and held his course through 
the Tickle along the land inside the nes and observed that 
this headland was an island. No one could guess either 
from the south or the north approach that there was a 
passage inside the island, until the Tickle opens. The nar- 
rowest part of the Tickle is about one mile, and the widest 



Flateyarhok 



83 



one mile and a half; its length is about six miles. The 
island is higher than the land inside and is nearly as high 
as the Bishops Mitre. Bjarne felt that he had now 
come far enough north and that he ought to change his 
course. As he emerged from the Tickle and the sea opened 
before him, he turned the stern of the ship against the land 
— set the ship at right angles to the land — and shaped his 
course for Greenland across the open sea. When Bjarne 
actually quits the coast the saga says so in its own way. As 



l^u^Jord^ickl 







f]oMviar\)*|»33ion 



MAP OF MUGFORD TICKLE 



in the other distances four doegr or 480 miles is short meas- 
ure. Counting a doegr at 140 miles would make 560 miles 
in all, which is not far from the actual distance. 

The narrative of Bjarne serves a double purpose. While 
on the one hand it relates the old tradition of Bjarne's 
remarkable voyage, it describes on the other the sailing 
course along the east coast to Greenland. As Bjarne sailed, 
the mariner is to follow the coast three doegr till he comes 
to a high and mountainous land. On its top one sees masses 
of snow, and from the snow down to the sea it looks like one 
solid mass of rock. One is to follow the coast inside the 



84 



The Norse Discovery of America 



headland and through the Tickle, and as the ocean opens 
again on both sides, it is time to take one's bearings for 
Greenland over the open sea. Then as now Cape Mugford 
stood as a landmark of the Labrador coast. The New- 
foundland and Labrador Pilot calls Cape Mugford "the 
most remarkable and unmistakable land on the Labrador 
coast." Eclipse Island is a similar place 60° N., whence 
the distance to Greenland is less. 



^^^^^^^^^^^^^1 


P"! 


^^E 


fe!£»*.il .feA^*.if^ 


HH^^H 


y, Wtff^-'f 


;■■ 


i^^ _ ^^^ 


t *f a*|gM|^^^^^fcMMj^^MgMM||^-^'— — ■ ^riWBi^BWH^^^^^^^^^^^^^H 



MUGFORD TICKLE, SOUTH END BETWEEN CLIFFS AND SPUR ON THE RIGHT. AUG. 15 



On a visit to Earl Eirik of Norway Bjarne later told 
of his voyage and the lands that he had seen. 

Men found it strange that he had not made further 
investigations. In the summer of 1001 Bjarne returned to 
Greenland, where talk of discovering new lands was already 
rife. They rehearsed the adventure of Bjarne and the men- 
tion that he had received in Norway. The following win- 
ter Leif Eiriksson from Brattalid visited Bjarne, bought his 
ship and informed himself carefully about his voyage. Leif 
prepared himself to seek the lands that Bjarne had seen, and 
gathered a crew of 35 men. Among these was Leif's foster 



Flateyarhok 



85 



father, a German, by the name of Tyrker. As this expedi- 
tion starts from Greenland, the discovered lands now come 
in the opposite order from what they did in the account 
of Bjarne. As the course and the distances to the first two 
lands are already given in Bjarne's voyage northward, the 
saga finds it superfluous to repeat them in Leif's voyage 
and goes into a fuller description of the lands. As long as 




CAPE MUGFORD, 3,000 FEET HIGH. AUGUST 15 

Leif follows the same course as Bjarne, neither course nor 
distance is mentioned; but as soon as he enters upon a new 
course from the second land, the same method of indicating 
courses and distances as in the case of Bjarne recurs. 

When they were ready they set out to sea and found 
first the land that Bjarne had seen last. They sailed toward 
the land, cast anchor, lowered a boat, went ashore and saw 
no grass there. In the upper tracts were huge jocles — mas- 



86 



The Norse Discovery of America 



ses of snow; but from the sea to the jocles It looked to them 
like one rock, and it seemed to them that this land was of no 
use. 

This agrees with the former description that the land 
was high and mountainous with jocles or snow on top and 
appeared to be useless. When we combine both descriptions 
we obtain a picture that corresponds to our knowledge of 




NAMjkrOK ISLAND. 2,500 FEET HIGH. FOUR OR FIVE MILES EAST OF CAPE MUGFORD 

SEPTEMBER 10 



North Labrador. These tracts lie north of the tree line; 
nothing grows there, not even grass on these naked and cold 
crags that reach like a solid rock from the sea to the snow 
covered mountain tops. High up lie huge masses of snow 
which they call jocles. It appeared to them that this land 
was of no use or benefit and so they called it Helluland, 
or Stoneland, Rockland. 

Leif coming from Greenland would enter Mugford 



Flatevarhok 



87 



Tickle at the North end and have the view of Cape Mug- 
ford on the left and Bishops Mitre on the right, where the 
scenery is as much like the description in the saga as it is 
possible to make it. On both sides of the winding Tickle 
we see the huge rocks reaching like one solid cliff from the 
sea up to the sparkling snow on the top of the mountain 
(see illustration). 

The objection has been made that the saga speaks of 
snow-covered mountain tops in Labrador as jocles or gla- 




MUGFORD TICKLE; FROM lill MUMII. n\ lHh H ICHT BISHOPS MITRE. ON THE LEFT 
CAPE MLIGFORD ISLAND. AUGUST 16 

ciers, though glaciers do not exist in Labrador. That they 
saw much snow on the mountains is certain. Missionaries 
who had lived many years in Labrador assured me that they 
had seen the mountains covered with snow in all the months 
of the year. Ten years ago, when they went ashore in July 
near Nachvak Bay, they found much snow and it looked like 
winter; on the 29th of August they had three inches of snow 
on the ship's deck; snow falling in the middle of September 
remains till far into the next summer. That Bjarne, who 
sailed late in the fall, and Leif early in the summer, saw 



88 



The Norse Discovery of America 



snow-covered mountain tops in Labrador is likely. That the 
Norsemen from Greenland, who were wont to see snow and 
ice on their own mountains, should call the snow-covered 
mountains in Labrador jocles is not astonishing. As jocles 
may mean snow-covered mountains or glaciers, the meaning 
here is not contrary to the usage of the language. Ivar 
Baardson speaks of Hvitserk J0kul as a high mountain near 
Hvarf, and Bj0rn Jonsson of Skardsd speaks of fnglahiarg 
i landiiordurhafi as J0kul. 




BISHOPS MHKK FKOM THE EAST. AUGUST 16 

After this they went on board. Then they sailed out 
on the sea and found the second land. They sailed toward 
the land, cast anchor, let down the boat and went ashore. 
That land was flat and wooded and there were wide stretches 
of white sand, where they went, and it was not steep down 
to the sea. From its nature they called this land Markland. 

Since we have no sailing directions for the first and 
second lands on this expedition, we are obliged to use the 
same that pertain to the corresponding lands in Bjarne's 
voyage and assume that Leif went ashore in the places 
where Bjarne saw land. As Bjarne could not see Labrador 



Flateyarhok 89 

from Cape Bauld, he followed the coast westward. From 
Cape Norman he easily saw the opposite coast and crossed 
the Strait of Belle Isle. 

The saga describes the land under four heads. The first 
two, flat and wooded, occur in the account of Bjarne. Con- 
trasted with North Labrador, which is high and mountain- 
ous, this land Is flat and level. It is not broken up by moun- 
tains that rise high above the surrounding country. The 
first impression that travelers receive of this coast is, that 
the same level prevails everywhere. They see no rise or fall, 
but the coastline continues at the same height as far as the 
eye reaches. The theory is, that in former ages the ice from 
the interior moved towards the sea and evened the surface 
to the same level. From the deck of a ship coursing at 
some distance from the coast the even contour of the land 
is striking. However, as one approaches the land and sees 
the countless hills and valleys, one gets almost the opposite 
impression. But these are comparatively small and diminish 
towards the interior. From the low hills along the coast 
the land rises gradually inland towards the watershed hun- 
dreds of miles away, where it reaches an elevation of 1500 
feet above the sea. Though the description of the saga fits 
all southern Labrador, it suits the south coast best. Forests 
are seen here and there along the east coast, as at Davis 
Inlet, Hamilton Inlet, Porcupine Strand and Sandwich Bay, 
but along the south coast one frequently sees forests in the 
harbors and valleys and along the bays, as one 
goes along the shore. No doubt woods were more frequent 
and extensive before the destructive forest fires and thou- 
sands of fishermen ravaged them. Sand is scarce along the 
east coast. With the exception of a stretch at Cape Por- 
cupine, sand appears only in small places and at the heads of 
bays. But on the south coast one sees sand here and there, 
and at Forteau Bay begins a stretch which goes far into 
the land and reaches west to Bradore. Here lies Blanc 
Sablon, named from the white sand-dunes along the river. 
That the Newfoundland side is sandy hardly concerns us 
here. The east coast is often steep toward the sea; but 
from Red Tickle, forty miles north of Battle Harbor, to 
Blanc Sablon the hills slope gently down to the sea. 



90 The Norse Discovery of America 

As the saga does not specify where Leif went ashore 
we follow the directions given for Bjarne's voyage and 
assume that Leif landed where Bjarne saw land, in the strait 
opposite Cape Norman. Thence he follows the coast south- 
west and on this voyage sees the white sand-dunes at Blanc 
Sablon: sandar kvitar vida j^ar sem f'eir foru. From 
Markland the saga gives separate directions for Leif's voy- 
age, which shows that he no longer follows Bjarne's route, 
but sails on a route of his own. This is also evident from 
the directions. Bjarne sailed north along the east coast of 
Newfoundland to the strait; Leif sailed from the strait 
southwest into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

After that they hastened back to the ship. Now they 
sailed away with a northeast wind and were out two doegr 
before they saw land. They sailed toward the land and 
came to an island which lay to the north of the land, went 
ashore and looked around in fine weather. They noticed 
that there was dew in the grass and it seemed to them that 
they had not tasted any thing so sweet before. Thereupon 
they went on board and sailed in the sound that lay between 
the island and the nes that jutted out to the north from the 
land. They sailed westward past the nes. 

As we have shown above, they were in the Strait of Belle 
Isle. The Labrador shore goes southwest and the Norse- 
men followed the coast. About 240 miles away lies the 
large island of Anticosti between this coast and Gaspe. The 
island is about 30 miles wide and 135 miles long. The 
west part lies north of Gaspe. Heavy fogs in the summer 
often cover the Gulf and obscure the vision. But in clear 
weather one can easily see from Anticosti to Gaspe. When 
they saw Gaspe opposite them, they went back to the ship 
and sailed in the strait and followed the coast of Gaspe 
westward. The sweet dew that the Norsemen found in the 
grass may have been what is known as "honey-dew;" but 
I have not been able to ascertain whether it exists on the 
island of Anticosti. 

The saga attempts to give sailing directions to Vinland. 
From the strait one is to follow the coast of Labrador, or 
Markland, to the large island of Anticosti. There are many 
small islands along this coast, but only one of large size 



Flateyarbok 91 

and only one lying north of the land of Gaspe. On reach- 
ing this island, they are to take the south channel and follow 
the Gaspe shore westward. As the island has a slanting 
position, they may have thought it nearer to Gaspe than 
it really is. On our earliest maps we find it drawn too near 
Gaspe. 

The enumeration of doegr, or distances, in this saga 
ceases at Anticosti. In the following explorations we find 
only directions, no doegr. The distance from Greenland 
to Anticosti is nine doegr or about 1180 miles, if accord- 
ing to Rymbegla we assume that one doegr corresponds to 
two degrees of latitude, or 120 geographical miles. Since 
the actual distance from Greenland is approximately 1200 
miles and all the distances in the saga prove a little short, we 
should perhaps rather accept that a doegr is about 140 
miles. In that case the saga distance from Cape Mugford 
to Greenland of four doegr would be 560 miles, which is 
approximately correct. This standard for both the Vin- 
land sagas is as constant as we can expect in that period. 
When we consider that these distances were established nine 
centuries ago and when we weigh the difficulties that they 
had to contend with in an unknown land, we can only marvel 
that they reached these results. Though their standard of 
measurement is imperfect, yet it is better than no measure- 
ment and far surpasses the many guesses that have been 
made. 

It was very shallow there at low tide and the ship stuck 
fast on the ground and it was far to look from the ship to the 
sea. But they were so anxious to go ashore that they 
could not wait till the water rose under the ship, and they 
ran ashore where a stream flowed out of a lake; but as soon 
as the sea rose under the ship, they took the boat and rowed 
out to the ship and took it into the stream and later into the 
lake. There they cast anchor, carried out their sleeping 
bags and made themselves huts. Later they decided to 
stay there and built a large house. 

How far west they sailed from Gaspe, the saga does not 
state, but from the narrative we understand that they 
reached at least the northern limit where grapes grow^\ The 
limit there is 47° N., or a line from the isle of Orleans below 



92 The Norse Discovery of America 

Quebec to the confluence of the Aroostook and St. John 
rivers. As they roamed about the country on their excur- 
sions, they saw no grapes, but when Tyrker one day strayed 
farther than the rest, he came upon grapes. If we assume, 
therefore, that Leif's booths stood on the south bank of 
the St. Lawrence, somewhere between the 46° and the 47°, 
we can not be far off the mark. 

It is characteristic of the lower St, Lawrence that it has 
ebb and tide and that it is very shallow along the south bank. 
Even small vessels can not land. At Rimouski, for instance, 
one sees the sea in the distance at low tide. When I came 
there, the tide was out and I was told that it was two or 
two and a half miles out to the sea. A couple of hours later 
the tide came in and rose to the edge of the town. While 
the sea was out, men loaded seaweed on rafts, which a horse 
pulled in at high tide. As it is shallow, the tide rushes in 
swiftly and goes out with the same speed. The Norsemen 
were not acquainted with the locality and before they knew 
what had happened, their ship stood fast on the ground. 
On the little stream they went some distance into the coun- 
try and found heavier timber, perhaps, and better shelter 
against the north v/ind. At first they put up huts to have 
cover over their heads; later they built in Norse fashion a 
skaale in the manner of a chieftain's hall. 

Salmon was abundant both in the stream and in the lake, 
and larger than they had seen before. The nature of the 
country was so favorable that it appeared to them that 
(small) cattle could do without fodder in the winter. 
There was no severe cold (frost) in the winter and the grass 
withered only a little. The day and night were of more 
equal length than in Greenland or Iceland. The sun had 
eyktarstad and dagmdlastad on the shortest day in the year. 

These remarks are relative and compare the prevailing 
conditions in Greenland and Iceland with Vinland. The 
salmon is larger, the land better, the weather milder, day 
and night are of more equal length than in Greenland or in 
Iceland. The sun had eyktarstad and dagmdlastad, which it 
did not have in Greenland or Iceland at the solstice. State- 
ments regarding climatic conditions of a region should be 
accepted with caution. We often hear people say that it 



Flateyarbok 93 

is not cold or warm in places where the thermometer records 
the contrary. That there was no frost in Vinland is of 
course incorrect and can hardly be reconciled with the mod- 
est claim that the day and night were of more equal length 
than in their home countries. Frost here as in other places 
means severe cold. A difference of fourteen and one-half 
degrees lengthens the day by three hours and two min- 
utes at the winter solstice. In 46° 30' N,, the sun rises 
according to local mean time at 7:41 and sets at 4:15, mak- 
ing a day of eight hours and thirty-four minutes, while in 
61° N., the sun rises at 9:12 and sets at 2:44, making a 
day of five hours and thirty-two minutes. The difference 
is large enough to warrant the remark in the text. It is 
now generally agreed that this observation was not taken 
north of 49° N., and with the route that Leif chose could 
not have been much south of 46° N. 

To explore the country Leif divided his company into 
two parties and arranged it so that one-half was to remain 
at home (by the house) while the other half ranged over 
the country, but they must not go farther than they could 
reach home in the evening and not separate from each other. 
Leif took his turn in going out or staying at home by the 
skaale. Thus it continued for a season. — One evening they 
noticed that Tyrker was lost. Leif took this much to heart; 
for Tyrker had lived with father and son and had been fond 
of Leif in his childhood. Leif ordered a dozen men to 
follow him and look for Tyrker. Before they had gone 
far from the house, Tyrker met them and was kindly re- 
ceived. Soon Leif observed that Tyrker was excited, and 
asked why he was so late and had separated from his com- 
pany. At first Tyrker spoke German, rolled his eyes and 
made faces to them, but they did not understand him. Then 
he said to them in the Norse tongue: "I did not go much 
farther than the rest, and yet I have news to tell : I have 
found vinvid and grapes." "Is that true?" said Leif. "To 
be sure that is true; for I was born where there was no 
lack of either vinvid or grapes," 

They slept that night and in the morning Leif said: 
"Now we shall take up two tasks : every other day we shall 
gather grapes or cut vinvid or fell timber, so as to have a 



94 The Norse Discovery of America 

cargo for the ship." They followed this advice. It is said 
that the ship's boat was full of grapes. A cargo of timber 
was cut, and when spring came they made ready and sailed 
away. Leif named the land from its products and called it 
Vinland. 

The word vinvidr means grape-vines; but in Greenland, 
where most people had not tasted wine or grapes and had 
never seen grape-vines, the word may easily have acquired 
a different meaning. If they had in mind the color of the 
wood, they may have applied that name to the cherry or 
to the red cedar. We have instances of the same word hav- 
ing different meanings in Norway and Iceland. With an 
abundance of choice timber which could be had for the cut- 
ting, it is hard to conceive why they should take on board a 
cargo of grape-vines for Greenland. 

We see from this narrative that Leif was a careful and 
prudent leader. He took the necessary precautions to pro- 
tect the men and the house against sudden attacks from the 
natives. How far they roamed from the house, the saga 
does not tell. It appears that with the afterboat, which 
they filled with grapes, they went so far that they found 
them in abundance. That they made wine from the grapes, 
we may conclude from the song of Thorhal Veideman, that 
he expected to drink wine in Vinland. 

Thereupon they sailed out upon the sea and had a favor- 
able wind till they saw mountains under the jocles of Green- 
land. Then they found people on a skerry and saved all 
and as much goods as the ship could hold. Leif invited 
the leader Thore and his wife Gudrid and three others to 
stay with him for the winter at Brattalid and found winter- 
quarters for the others. After that he was called Leif the 
Lucky. 

Now there was much talk about Leif's voyage to Vin- 
land. His brother Thorvald was of the opinion that they 
should continue to explore the country. Leif offered him 
his ship for a Vinland voyage. With the advice of Leif 
Thorvald made ready and equipped the ship. After this 
they went to sea, in all thirty men, and came to Leif's booths. 

The saga has nothing to report concerning this expedi- 
tion before it reached Vinland. Since the saga has already 



Flateyarhok 95 

in the accounts of Bjarne and Leif described the lands that 
they passed on the way, there is no occasion for repeating 
them here. Thorvald's part in the voyages begins in Vin- 
land. They laid up the ship there and remained quiet dur- 
ing the winter. 

In the spring Thorvald gave orders to get ready the ship 
and that the afterboat with a few men should go westward 
and explore the country during the summer. They set out. 
They thought the land was fair and well wooded, and it 
was not far between the forests and the sea and there 
were long stretches of white sand. There were many islands 
and it was very shallow. They saw no traces of men or 
of deer, except that on one of the western islands they found 
a grainshed of timber. Without finding any other signs of 
people they returned to Leif's booths in the fall. 

The saga here enumerates six points which tally exactly 
with the conditions on the south banks of the St. Lawrence 
river. It is a well known fact that a sail on the St. Law- 
rence is remarkably beautiful. Immigrants from Norway 
who take this route to the west praise the landscape in the 
manner of the saga. The big forests reach down to the 
beach — not as in Markland, where they had to go long dis- 
tances into bays and fjords to obtain timber. In several 
places we find sandy beaches washed by the waves at high 
tide. Some of them are wide and shallow. The natives told 
me that the incoming tide in places rushes in with such a 
fury that a horse can barely escape. Islands begin to appear 
at Rimouski and become more numerous as one approaches 
Quebec. The Norsemen evidently looked upon the lower 
St. Lawrence as a part of the sea, as the water was salt and 
had ebb and tide. The PVench natives regularly speak of it 
now as the sea (la mer). As the river trends towards the 
southwest, the Norsemen may have thought that there was 
an ocean on the west and south. Some who believed that 
Vinland was an extension of Africa, must have entertained 
this notion, as we read in an Icelandic geography: Some 
believe that (Vinland) is connected with Africa, and if that 
be the case, then the ocean must needs come in between 
Vinland and Markland. Maps from the 16th century actu- 



96 The Norse Discovery of America 

ally show a connection between the St. Lawrence and the 
ocean near New York. 

in the summer (the afterboat having gone west in the 
spring) Thorvald cruised with the merchant ship east of the 
land and then took a more northerly course along the land. 
Then a violent storm came upon them near a nes and they 
drove upon it and broke the keel under the ship. They 
remained there a long time and repaired the ship. Now 
they raised the keel on the nes and called it Kjalarnes. 
Thereupon they sailed away from there eastward past the 
land (and came on the east coast). 

The saga is very brief and does not repeat itself. The 
only apparent exception is when Leif goes over the same 
ground as Bjarne. But we should remember that Bjarne 
only saw the lands from the deck of his ship, while Leif 
went ashore and explored the country. Two expeditions 
were out the first summer that Thorvald spent in Vinland. 
All historians have erroneously accepted that the expedition 
led by Thorvald spent three winters in Vinland. They 
assign one summer to the expedition westward in the after- 
boat, and another to the expedition eastward in the mer- 
chant vessel. But the saga says that the afterboat left in 
the first spring and the merchant vessel in the first summer 
after they sailed from Greenland, and in the fall both expe- 
ditions came back to Leif's booths. The expedition under 
Thorvald spent only two winters in Vinland. The men in 
the afterboat now explored the coast to the west of Leif's 
booths. Leif had discovered the stretch of coast as far east 
as Gaspe three years before. Now when Thorvald sails along 
this coast on his voyage eastward, it is the fourth time that 
Norsemen pass it and the saga does not mention it, being old 
and familiar ground. The narrative of the saga begins east 
of Gaspe and New Brunswick, where Thorvald cruised in 
virgin waters. The details are exasperatingly few. East 
of Gaspe and New Brunswick they cruised as far as New- 
foundland, where they turned north (hit nyrSra fyrir landit) 
and followed the west coast to the uttermost nes. Cape Nor- 
man. To be sure. Cape Bauld lies farther north, but Cape 
Bauld is an island with a passage for ships between the 
island and the land. As one stands on Cape Norman and 



Flateyarhok 97 

sees the harborless shore towards the southwest and Cape 
Bauld to the east, it becomes apparent that Cape Norman 
is the land's end to the north. The nes is now 61 feet high 
and rises abruptly from the sea. On the east side below 
the cape is a small harbor by the name of Norman or 
Cape Cove, from which the top of the cape is easily acces- 
sible. When Thorvald and his men had repaired the ship 
In Cape Cove, they carried the old keel upon the top of the 
nes and stood it up about where the light-house now stands 
and called the nes Kjalarnes. Thus the cape received the 
name which it bore as long as Norsemen sailed these waters. 
It stood in a place that all ships from Greenland passed 
and was situated on the great highway of travel in the New 
World. If Karlsefne a few years later renamed the cape, 
like Helluland and Markland, it only received again the same 
name that it had before. From Cape Norman they sailed 
eastward past the land (austr fyrir landit) and came on the 
east coast. That Kjalarnes can not have been Cape Bauld 
is apparent from the fact that they sailed eastward along 
the land from Kjalarnes, while Cape Bauld is the eastern- 
most point with no land beyond. 

The following occurrences took place on the east coast, 
possibly at St. Anthony or in Hare Bay. They sailed into 
the neighboring fjords and all went ashore on a projecting 
point that was wooded. The place seemed fair to Thor- 
vald and he desired to dwell there. A little inside the nes 
they found three skin-boats and three natives sleeping under 
each boat. They killed eight, but one escaped with a boat. 
Soon a countless number of skin-boats issued from the fjord 
and attacked them. They put up the storm shields along 
the gunwale and defended themselves. The natives shot 
with arrows for a while, then took to flight as fast as they 
could. An arrow flew between the edge of the ship and the 
shield and struck Thorvald under the arm. "This is my 
death," said Thorvald. "Now it is my advice that you go 
back to the crew, but carry me to the nes, where I thought 
it fair to dwell. There you shall bury me and set a cross 
at my head and feet and always call it Krossanes." Thor- 
vald died there, and the men did as he had said. Thereupon 
they sailed away, found their comrades and told each other 
tidings. Thus the crew that had gone west in the afterboat 



98 The Norse Discove?-y of America 

in the spring and the crew that had sailed east in the mer- 
chant ship in the summer returned in the fall. They stayed 
in Leif's booths in the winter and found grapes, vinvid and 
a cargo for the ship. The following spring they sailed back 
to Greenland, arrived in Eiriksf jord after two years' absence 
and had great tidings to tell Leif. 

The three voyages that we have now reviewed describe 
important discoveries made by the Norsemen in the New 
World. Bjarne's voyage gives us for the first time a glimpse 
of the east coast from southern Newfoundland to Green- 
land. Leif's and Thorvald's voyages open to us the basin 
of the St. Lawrence. Since in all likelihood all visible traces 
of the Norsemen's visits to these shores have long since 
passed away, the record of the sagas must decide whether 
they have explored these regions. 

With the location of Vinland in the St. Lawrence val- 
ley the voyage becomes simple and natural. The waters 
traversed on this route are safe and offer no serious difficulty 
to the skillful mariner. The Labrador coast in summer is 
unusually calm and in case of storm is abundantly supplied 
with excellent harbors. The inland waters of the gulf are 
even more secure. Following this route the Norsemen 
were never out of sight of land after they had once found 
the Labrador coast. To be sure they shifted to the Gaspe 
shore at Anticosti, but only when they saw the land opposite 
them. The voyage along the east coast, on the other hand, 
is far more hazardous and offers the wellnigh insurmount- 
able difficulty of passing from Newfoundland to Nova 
Scotia. By the southward trend of the St. Lawrence river 
they easily reached a latitude that is mild and well provided 
with grapes and rich in many kinds of timber. 

From this region we have the only reminders of the 
Norsemen in America south of Labrador. The earliest mis- 
sionaries claim that they found traces of Christianity in the 
St. Lawrence valley. Christian Le Clerq, who lived twelve 
years in Gaspe, mentions that he found remnants of the 
Lord's Prayer and a reverence for the cross among the 
natives there. Joseph Francois Lafitan makes similar state- 
ments and speaks of finding traces of Christianity among 



Flateyarhok 99 

the Indians and observed that the cross was the symbol of 
their faith. 

Scholars have in recent years called attention to the 
remarkable likeness that exists between the Canadian 
game of lacrosse and the Old-Norse game of ball, called 
Knattleikr. It is believed that the Indians acquired the game 
from the Norsemen and that they have transmitted it some- 
what changed down to our day•^^ The Algonquins, who 
originally dwelt where I locate the Norse Vinland, seem to 
have learnt the game from the Norsemen and to have intro- 
duced it among the Iroquois, Hurons and other tribes. It 
seems to be more than a striking coincidence that all these 
traces should be found in this region. 



QocltViaaW 




r). Cn°? 



7M012.VALt)3 ') 



^o,U. 



^^" 



NORTHEAST COAST. 



THORFIN KARLSEFNE'S SAGA 

THORFIN KARLSEFNE was the son of Thord Hest- 
hofdi and Thorun and lived on Reynines by Skagafjord. 
He belonged to a powerful and. wealthy family and sailed 
about as a merchant and was considered a good captain. 
One summer he made ready to sail to Greenland together 
with Snorre Thorbrandson, the famous gode of Helgafell. 
There were forty men on board the ship. Bjarne Grimolfs- 
son and Thorhal Gamlason also made their ship ready and 
accompanied Karlsefne and Snorre. These had also forty 
men on board. Both ships reached Eiriksfjord in Green- 
land in the fall. Eirik the Red and several Greenlanders 
rode down to the ships and traded with them. The mer- 
chants asked Eirik to take as much of their wares as he 
desired, and in return Eirik invited the crews of both ships 
to stay with him for the winter. They accepted the invita- 
tion and brought their goods under shelter; for there were 
many out-houses at Brattalid. The merchants were well 
satisfied with Eirik in the winter. Towards Christmas Eirik 
waxed silent and less cheerful than was his wont, when he 
understood that there would be lack of corn for so many and 
he feared that they might say that they had never had a 
worse Christmas than the one Eirik the Red gave them In 
Greenland. When Karlsefne heard this, he opened his 
stores and bade Eirik take as much as he wanted. Then 
Eirik prepared for Christmas and the festivities were so 
grand that people thought that they had not seen the like 
of this in Greenland. When Karlsefne married Gudrid 
after Christmas, the festivities were renewed and there was 
great joy at Brattalid in the winter. 

They talked much about seeking Vinland and many 



102 The Norse Discovery of America 

expected to find their fortunes there. It resulted in this, that 
Karlsefne and Snorre made ready their ship to go to Vin- 
land in the spring. Bjarne and Thorhal did hkewise and 
accompanied them with the ship and crew they had from 
Iceland. A Greenland ship also accompanied them, and 
most of those on board this ship were Greenlanders. Of 
Eirik the Red's people are mentioned his son Thorvald and 
his son-in-law Thorvard with his wife Freydis, and one 
Thorhal, called Veideman, or hunter, who had long been 
with Eirik as a hunter or fisherman in summer and a stew- 
ard in winter. The saga is severe and almost merciless 
in its judgment of Thorhal, saying, among other things, that 
he was large, black and mean and had taken little interest 
in Christianity since it came to Greenland. He went in the 
ship with Thorvald, for he had a wide acquaintance with the 
obygdir. Although Thorhal was not friendly, Eirik associ- 
ated much with him. On the three ships there are said to 
have been upwards of 160 men. That one-half of the 
crew went on board in Greenland, shows that people there 
must have taken great interest in the expedition, if we can 
accept these figures, which appear to be somewhat exag- 
gerated. Weary of lying quiet and eager to start they set 
out early. All former expeditions had gone out from Eiriks- 
tjord and crossed the open sea to Labrador. Like Bjarne 
they may have had rough weather. The last expedition 
under Thorstein had encountered storms and heavy seas and 
had been driven about all summer. Instead of reaching Vin- 
land they got a glimpse of Iceland and saw birds from Ire- 
land. Late in the fall they came to land in the West 
Bygd. Naturally they hesitated to venture out upon this 
sea and cast about in the winter for another route. Eirik 
the Red had already discovered Baflfin Land, and sealing 
vessels on daring excursions had since no doubt penetrated 
farther south. From Eiriksfjord they sailed to the West 
Bygd, whence {in two doegr) they crossed Davis Strait 
to Baffin Land. From Bjarney, an island upon the coast, 
they sailed in two doegr south to Helluland. The saga 
co-ordinates as important stations on the way to Vinland 
the West Bygd, Bjarney, Helluland, Markland and Kjalar- 
nes. As might be expected, some links in this chain would 



Thorfin Karhefne's Saga 



103 



come out of place. So AM. 557 combines West Bygd and 
Bjarney, as if the latter were an island on the west coast 
of Greenland, whence Karlsefne sailed south to Labrador 
in two doegr, changing the direction as well as the distance. 
By a false use of the Gr0nlandiae Vetus Chorographia some 
have placed Bjarney far up the west coast of Greenland 
and uselessly increased the distance and changed the direc- 
tion of the saga. At first this was only a careless expres- 




SOUTH SIDE OF NACHVAK BAY, FROM SCHOONER. AUGUST 22 

sion, which has since entailed much annoyance. Bjarney 
lying to the north of Helluland must be sought in Baffin 
Land. Odd Jonsson cites to the point an important vari- 
ant in this place: Sigldu I'eir simian ut fra landi i Vestari 
Ubygt5ir. Vestari Ubygdir here is the Vestre Obygd of 
the Landnama and can only be Baffin Land. It is absurd 
with some to place Bjarney in Disco Island or on the west 
coast of Greenland and to make the expedition sail forward 
and back over the same route, to make the voyage upon 
the sea twice as long as it needed to be — to double that pas- 
sage over the open sea which they purposely endeavored 



104 



Tlw Norse Discovery of America 



to shorten. These were the ubygdir past which Thorhal 
Veideman should pilot the ships. 

From Bjarney on the coast of Baffin Land they sailed 
two doegr, or four degrees, south. Then they saw land, 
put off a boat and explored the land. They found large 
flagstones, often twelve ells wide, and many foxes. They 
gave the land a name and called it Helluland. The sailing 
directions are correct, but the description of the land is 




POMIADLUK 
Mountain and s'ai'iatrd bench (hrllur). July 30 



deficient. We learn only that they found large flagstones 
and many foxes. This saga calls the land Helluland, be- 
cause they found there many flagstones (hellur), but the 
Flateyarbok called it Helluland because it consisted of cliffs 
and rocks and was a stone-land without vegetation. It 
appears to me that the Flateyarbok has the original version. 
As far as I was able to learn, no place answering the 
description of the Karlsefne saga was known along the 
Labrador coast. No doubt they saw the coast all the way 



Thorfiii Karlscfne' s Saga 



105 



from Cape Chidley, though in saga fashion they are made 
to come upon the land just where they go ashore. The 
object of the saga is manifestly to describe the land that 
Bjarne and Leif had seen. The nearest resemblance that 
I can find along the Labrador coast to hellur in Karlsefne's 
saga are the so-called glaciated benches, where the glaciers 
have flattened and polished the rocks. The illustration, 
however, is from Pomiadluk, in latitude 55°. 




tZ^^Zr-—^^"- 






DAVIS INLET. LAT. 56° 

(A bit of Marklanil ) 

Thence they sailed two doegr and veered from south 
to southeast and found a land — Davis Inlet to Hamilton 
Inlet — which was well wooded and had many deer. South- 
east of the land lay an island, where they killed a bear, and 
which on that account they called Bjarney, and the land 
they named Markland. 

From Nain the Labrador coast bends towards the south- 
east as far as Hamilton Inlet. That an island may lie to 
the southeast, the coast must go west, as it does at Hamilton 
Inlet. On one of the islands in the inlet they killed a bear 
and afterwards called the island Bjarney. The Icelandic 



106 The Norse Discovery of America 

Annals relate that in 1347 a Greenland ship that had been 
in Markland came drifting without anchor to Straumfjord 
in Iceland. This incident shows that in the middle of the 
fourteenth century the Greenlanders had not forgotten the 
way to Markland and were perhaps still making their annual 
visits there to obtain timber. The use of the word si^an, 
afterwards, suggests the same interpretation. Hamilton 
Inlet abounds in timber and is not overly far from Green- 
land. We have every reason to believe that the Norse 
Greenlanders supplied themselves there with timber. 

As Leif had already explored and named Helluland and 
Markland, it seems strange that the saga should ascribe 
this honor to Karlsefne. It came about in the following 
manner. The Flateyarbok describes the route of the first 
expedition, and after it is once given, it obtains for all the 
succeeding expeditions. The Flateyarbok does not give sep- 
arate descriptions for Thorvald or Freydis, as they come 
later and pass over the same route as Leif. But the expe- 
dition of Karlsefne, being the only one in the Karlsefne 
saga, is treated as the first in the series. To make the 
narrative intelligible the saga had to describe the course 
and give the directions and the distances. Those who did 
not know the complete narrative of all the expeditions to 
Vinland, supposed that the chapter on Karlsefne's voyage 
contained the entire account of the history of Vinland. 
Since the brief and summary account of Leif's accidental 
discovery of Vinland does not mention Helluland and Mark- 
land, it would naturally occur to them that Karlsefne was 
the real discoverer of these lands and gave them names. 
This explains also the scant consideration which they receive 
in this saga. Originally there was no description of these 
lands here, as they belonged to Leif's saga; but when their 
discovery fell to Karlsefne and they had to insert a descrip- 
tion, they were at a loss as to what to say and merely trans- 
lated the names. Helluland was the land of hellur and 
foxes, and Markland was the land of forests and deer. 

In the following section one codex is fuller than the 
other. AM. 544: From Markland they sailed south along 
the coast a long while and came opposite a nes, and the 
land lay on starboard; there were long, sandy strands. They 



Thorfin Karlscfne's Saga 107 

rowed to land and found on the nes the keel of a ship, and 
called it Kjalarnes, and the strands they called Furdu- 
strandir; for they thought it long to sail past them. 
AM. 557: When two doegr were past, they saw land and 
sailed to it. There was a nes over against which they came. 
They tacked along the coast and kept the land on starboard. 
There was a harborless coast and long, sandy strands. They 
went ashore in boats and found on the nes the keel of a ship 
and called it Kjalarnes. They named also the strands and 
called them Furdustrandir; for they were long to sail past. 

From Hamilton Inlet the coast goes south 200 miles to 
Battle Harbor, where the Strait of Belle Isle commences. 
Thence it is 26 miles to Cape Bauld, with Cape Norman 
18 miles farther west. Cape Norman is thus scant two 
doegr, or 240 miles, distant from Hamilton Inlet, as one 
saga has it. The coast which they followed was that of 
Markland, which reaches to the Strait. The Flateyarbok 
says that Leif sailed southwest from Markland, which be- 
comes possible only in the Strait. All Icelandic geographies 
are agreed that it is not far from Markland to Vinland, 
meaning thereby the Strait of Belle Isle and Karlsefne's 
Vinland. When Gripla states that it is not far from Hellu- 
land to Vinland, the meaning is that all Labrador is at 
times called Helluland, altho Helluland as a rule was 
applied to the high, mountainous and treeless North Labra- 
dor, whereas the wooded southern part was called Markland 
(Markland I'ar er skogrinn er). No sea is ever mentioned 
between Markland and Helluland. 

That Kjalarnes lies on the south side of the Strait can 
be shown from both sagas. It is not mentioned by Leif 
or those who follow the Labrador coast to Vinland. Thor- 
vald, who came from Leif's Vinland by way of Prince 
Edward Island and followed the coast of Newfoundland, 
broke his keel upon it and after repairing his vessel con- 
tinued to follow the coast until he came to the east coast. 
Thorhal Veideman, who came from Straumfjord on the 
east coast of Newfoundland and followed its coast till he 
reached the Gulf of St. Lawrence, passed Kjalarnes. Like- 
wise Karlsefne, who sailed north on the east coast and south 
on the west coast, rounded Kjalarnes in the strait, but he 



108 



The Norse Discovery of America 



does not pass it on his return to Greenland, when he prob- 
ably sailed between Cape Bauld and Belle Isle as the 
steamers now do. It lay too far west to be seen by boats 
going north or south along the east coast. 



I i 

u 




CANADA 

It is generally assumed that Furdustrandir and Kjalar- 
nes lie along an east coast that goes north and south, and 
no one has explained how they seem to see the nes twice'*. 
It seems that Haukr Erlendsson has cut down the Hauks- 



Tor fin Karlsef tie's Saga 109 

bok to suit that view. As they came from the north and 
coursed along Labrador, they are over against the nes 
and no doubt see the nes on the opposite shore. Still they 
keep on tacking along the Labrador shore with the land 
on starboard, and they cross between Point Amour and 
Sandy Cove, where it is narrowest, and follow on the New- 
foundland side back again by the long and sandy and 
harborless Straight Shore, which appeared to them so long, 
till they at length reached Kjalarnes, or Cape Norman, over 
against where they first saw it. 

They landed on the east side of the nes — the only land- 
ing place there — mounted the hill and found the keel that 
Thorvald and his men had raised there. The oral tradition 
here no doubt recalled the expedition of Thorvald and the 
accident that had befallen him, but the literary saga con- 
tents itself with this brief reference. The saga goes into 
many details in the Strait, because it was possible there to 
sail in several directions. 

Then the land (coast) is cut by bays and they sailed 
into one of them. Now the coastline changes: Instead of 
a straight and harborless coast on the west side of the nes, 
there is on the east side a succession of bays and harbors 
all the way to the east coast. It is literally correct, as the 
saga has it, that the appearance of the coast changes as 
soon as one passes the nes. 

In one of these bays Karlsefne put ashore two Scotch 
runners and told them to run southward and explore the 
land. Within three days they returned, one with an ear of 
wheat and the other with a bunch of grapes. Shore wheat 
Karlsefne might have picked on the shore himself, as I 
have done; but grapes do not grow in Newfoundland. Still 
I saw in the woods not far from this place a red berry that 
grows in bunches and otherwise resembles grapes and might 
be mistaken for grapes by people who did not know grapes 
and were anxious to find them. People with whom I talked 
on this coast said that they had never seen grapes, and only 
imagined how they looked from pictures that they had seen. 
When we consider that most of the Norsemen had not even 
seen pictures of grapes, we can easily understand how they 
could be mistaken. It does not mend matters to transfer 



110 The Norse Discovery of America 

this incident to Cape Breton Island, as Storm has done; for 
neither there do grapes grow. To find a place on the east 
coast farther south, where grapes grow and which otherwise 
suits the two sagas, is not possible. 

Thereupon they took the runners on board the ship 
and sailed away southward, till the coast was cut by fjords. 
They took the ships into a fjord, went ashore, carried out 
the cargo and settled down. Outside of the fjord was an 
island, and strong currents ran around it. They called the 
island Straumsey and the fjord Straumfjord. 

What was the distance from Kjalarnes to Straumfjord, 
we do not know, as AM. 544 ceases to give doegr in Mark- 
land and AM. 557 at Kjalarnes. The appearance of this 
land we gather from a few statements which are fairly def- 
inite. From the bays east of Kjalarnes they sailed south and 
came to Straumfjord. While they stayed at Straumfjord, 
they were of the opinion that the land became wider as they 
went southward. This shows that they had not yet passed 
Cape Race; for south of Newfoundland the coast recedes 
constantly and the land narrows as one goes south. This 
observation is also in accord with what we read in several 
geographies, that Vinland was perhaps connected with 
Africa. If the Norsemen had reached beyond Newfound- 
land, they would have observed that the reverse was the 
fact and would have called attention to it both in the saga 
and in the geographies. From Straumfjord Karlsefne sailed 
south to Hop and north back to Straumfjord. From 
Straumfjord Karlsefne sailed north, and after passing Kjal- 
arnes he sailed south along the west coast, till he thought 
he was opposite Hop and that they saw the same mountains 
that they had seen at Hop. From Straumfjord it was 
about the same distance In a straight line to Hop and to 
this place. From Straumfjord Thorhal, called Veideman, 
sailed north, and when he had passed Kjalarnes and Furdu- 
strandlr and was about to sail along the west coast (fyrir 
vestan) a fierce gale drove him east to Ireland, which lies 
on this parallel. According to the saga, then, the west coast 
runs north and south; the east coast has an eastward trend; 
in the north it ends in a point, which they called Kjalarnes, 
with a barren, harborless coast on the west and bays on the 



Thorfin Karlsef tie's Saga 1 1 1 

east. This description agrees with that of Newfoundland, 
which lies in the form of a triangle, ending in Cape Norman 
in the north. The south coast is never mentioned in either 
saga. The north end of Cape Breton Island also runs into 
a point and might in so far be taken for Cape Norman, but 
if we, as Storm does, place Straumfjord at Gut of Canso 
and Hop farther west in Nova Scotia, they will be situated 
on a south coast, while the saga indicates an east coast. 
There is no likelihood for the view that at Cape Race they 
left the coast which they had hitherto followed so closely 
and traversed four hundred miles of open sea to Cape Bre- 
ton Island. Though the passage from Port Aux Basques 
or Ca.pe Ray is much less, they could not see across and 
had no means of knowing that here was the shortest pas- 
sage over Cabot Strait. Furthermore Cape Breton has no 
sandy strands and bays as those which the saga describes at 
the north end. Between the two points in which Cape 
Breton Island terminates the coast runs in a slight inward 
curve of a few miles. 

The saga remarks that the coast was cut by bays at 
Kjalarnes, while it was cut by a fjord at Straumfjord. This 
difference we observe when we compare the small bays east 
of Cape Norman and the long fjords that begin with White 
Bay and Notre Dame Bay. 

The description of Straumfjord is not more exact than 
that it may tally with several places in these fjords, which 
are surrounded by mountains on one side and by outlying 
islands on the other. Outside the long fjord called Halls 
Bay, for example, lies Little Bay Island with strong currents 
on both sides, where the tide is said to rise ten feet. The 
land trends strongly to the east and corresponds to the obser- 
vation made at Straumfjord. If we assume that Straum- 
fjord was in Notre Dame Bay and Hop was in one of the 
southern bays it will satisfy all the requirements of the saga 
and give us a fair solution of the difficulty. 

They had with them all kinds of cattle and they tried 
to derive some advantage from the land. There were moun- 
tains and fine views. They did nothing else than explore the 
land. The grass was high. They remained there that 
winter and it proved to be severe. Since they had not made 



1 12 The Norse Discovery of America 

any provisions for the winter, there was lack of food. Fish- 
ing ceased and they were unable to find game. So they 
moved out upon the island in the hope of obtaining fish, 
or a whale might come drifting. Yet food was scarce, but 
the cattle thrived. Then they made vows to God that he 
should send them something; but it did not come as soon as 
they expected. Thorhal, who favored the old religion, dis- 
appeared, and some of the men searched for him for three 
days. On the fourth day Karlsefne and Snorre found him 
on the top of a knoll engaged in some mummery to Thor. 
He lay on his back and stared and gaped into the air and 
muttered something, while he pinched and scratched him- 
self. They asked him to go home with them and he did 
so. Soon after a whale floated in and the cooks cut it up 
and boiled parts of it; but all became sick. Thorhal said 
that he had escaped, thanks to the red-bearded Thor for 
whom he chanted; seldom had he failed him. When the 
men heard this they refused to taste the whale and rolled 
it over the cliff into the sea. In the spring they went into 
the fjord again. The weather grew milder and they found 
abundant food; they found game on land, eggs on the island 
and fish in the sea. Hauksbok does not mention that they 
moved out to the island in the winter. 

While they were living at Straumfjord, things took a 
new turn. In the beginning and as long as weather was 
mild and they found abundant food, all went well; but when 
the severe winter came and they suffered for lack of food 
and had to endure all kinds of hardships, the conviction 
became general that Straumfjord was not in Vinland. Thor- 
hal Veideman advocated that they should seek Vinland 
towards the west; he pleaded that they should sail back 
past Kjalarnes and Furdustrandir and look for Vinland in 
the west. He felt sure that he was right and put forth his 
views with all the fire and energy he possessed. He suc- 
ceeded in convincing the men that it was worth while trying, 
and he obtained the command of one ship with a crew of 
nine men. As he made his ship ready and was carrying 
water to the ship, he drank from the bucket and sang his 
disappointment in having to carry himself the bucket to 
the fountain instead of drinking the best wine, as they had 



Thorfin Karhcfne's Saga 



113 



promised him. As they hoisted the sail, Thorhal sang 
again about going back to a better place, where friends 
are found, while those who praise the land (Straumfjord) 
may stay behind and cook whale meat on the forsaken 
strands. Thorhal was sure that Karlsefne had lost his way 



//n^^'^^"''^ C>*1 




]rlar><i 



jHOT5hALs3 77 



and that in order to come upon the right course they had 
to go back past Kjalarnes and Furdustrandir and thus come 
upon the course that Leif had followed to Vinland. The 
commentators understand the words F(t>rum aptr as though 
Thorhal meant to return to Greenland, which is manifestly 
false and could not have been entertained. Karlsefne ac- 



114 The Norse Discovery of America 

companies him to the island, where they parted. Thorhal 
sailed northward, passed Kjalarnes and Furdustrandir, and 
as he was about to tack westward (into the Gulf of. St. 
Lawrence) or on the west coast (of Newfoundland), a 
storm from the west drov^e him eastward to Ireland, which 
lies on the same parallel. There they were treated badly 
and Thorhal lost his life, as merchants have related. 

This attempt of Thorhal to reach Vinland shows where 
an old and experienced sailor, who had informed himself 
about Leif's course, thought that Vinland was located. As 
an intimate and trusted friend of Eirik the Red Thorhal 
had the best opportunity to know the route to Vinland, and 
as a much traveled man he would take a great interest in 
the new discoveries. Although this expedition failed on 
account of a storm, it went far enough to show whither 
they intended to sail and where they would have come under 
more favorable circumstances. Thorhal's purpose was to 
find the route by which Leif had discovered Vinland — just 
what we should expect from one so intimately acquainted 
with the family of Eirik the Red. The two songs that we 
have in this chapter show that we are dealing with an old 
section of the narrative. It is possible that the saga-teller 
misinterpreted the old songs and did not apprehend the true 
relation between the old song and the story; but at this 
distance we can hardly go back of the saga-teller and we are 
obliged to assume that he understood his sources, till we 
can prove the contrary. As far as this goes, it points to the 
knowledge of a Vinland farther west than Straumfjord and 
Hop, and in so far this fragmentary information is in accord 
with the accounts in the Flateyarbok. 

As a reason for the harsh and merciless treatment 
which Thorhal receives in this saga, we are told that he 
remained a heathen, when most of the people accepted 
Christianity. This is hardly tenable, since we have in this 
very saga several instances of heathens who receive con- 
siderate mention. I need only mention Eirik the Red, Thor- 
stein Bonde and the witch Thorbj0rg, or Litil-V0lva. The 
reason seems rather to be, that he opposed Karlsefne's fa- 
vorite purpose of finding Vinland to the south and insisted 
on going to Leif's Vinland in the west. According to the 



Thorfin Karlsefne's Saga 115 

Icelanders' views it was incumbent on them to show that 
Newfoundland, to which Karlsefne came, was the real Vin- 
land and for that reason they handled Thorhal roughly. 

Karlsefne, Snorre and Bjarne with their people sailed 
south along the coast. They sailed a long time till they 
came to a stream which flowed from the interior into a 
lake and then into the sea. At the mouth were large sand- 
bars so that they could enter only at high tide. They sailed 
into the mouth of the stream and called the land Hop. On 
the lowlands they found self-sown wheat fields and higher 
up vinvid, they found fish and deer (caribou) in abundance 
and their cattle thrived there. They built houses up from 
the water, some nearer and others farther away. 

The location of Hop is quite as indefinite as that of 
Straumfjord. We have shown elsewhere that the Norse- 
men hardly sailed south past Newfoundland. The mild 
winter and the abundance of fish and game which they found 
points to southern Newfoundland, which is fully as mild 
in winter as New England. The saga relates that fish and 
game left the northerly Straumfjord in the fall, but ap- 
peared again in Hop. The caribou abandons northern New- 
foundland in the winter, as that part of the island is cov- 
ered with deep snow at that season of the year, while the 
southern part is open with a moderate climate. Fish and 
game move south in the fall. Writers have laid great stress 
on the expression that they sailed a long time (lengi), as if 
the east coast of Newfoundland were too short. The saga 
uses the same expression about Karlsefne's sail south along 
the west coast of Newfoundland, which is of the same 
length as the east coast. A similar expres^sion (langa stund) 
the saga uses about the distance from Hamilton Inlet to 
Cape Norman, which distance is less than 240 miles. 

They stayed there a half month before they became 
aware of Skraelings. Early one morning they saw a great 
number of skin-boats approach. From the boats the natives 
swung poles which produced a noise like that of flails, and 
they swung them with the sun. As a sign of peace the 
Norsemen took a white shield and held it out towards them. 
The natives rowed nearer, stood amazed and finally came 
ashore. They were a black and ugly people and had coarse 



116 The Norse Discovery of America 

hair on their heads. They had large eyes and were broad 
across the cheek bones. They remained a while and gazed 
around in wonder and afterwards rowed away south past 
the nes. The Norsemen dwelt there that winter. No snow 
fell and the cattle fed themselves outside. 

When spring came they saw a great multitude of skin- 
boats come rowing from the south past the nes, so many 
that the sea appeared to be sown with coals. The Norse- 
men put up their shields and held a fair. The natives 
wanted to buy especially red cloth. They gave one untanned 
skin for a piece of cloth one span long, which they bound 
on their heads. They wanted to buy also spears and swords ; 
but Karlsefne and Snorre forbade that. When they began 
to run short of cloth, they cut it up into strips as wide as 
across the finger; but the Skraelings paid as much, if not 
more, for these. Thus the barter went on for a while, when 
a bull came rushing out of the woods and bellowed loudly. 
The Skraslings took fright, ran out upon their boats and 
rowed away south past the nes. They were not seen for 
three weeks. Then they saw a multitude of skin-boats 
come from the south with the tide. They swung poles 
against the sun and shouted loudly. The Norsemen carried 
red shields against them and they began to fight. At first 
they shot. The Skraelings had war-slings. Karlsefne and 
Snorre saw the Skraelings raise on poles a ball as large as 
a sheep's paunch and blue in color and sling it on land over 
Karlsefne's people. It came down with a loud report and 
frightened the Norsemen, who retired along the stream, 
till *-hey came to some rocky hillocks, for they thought that 
the Skraelings set upon them from all sides. There they 
fought resolutely. Freydis came out and saw how they 
retreated. She was a bold woman and thought that they 
might be able to butcher them like cattle. Had she but 
weapons, she would fight better than any of them, she said, 
as she followed them into the forest. Finding Thorbrand 
Snorrason killed with a stone in the head, she took his sword 
to defend herself. When the Skraelings caught up with 
her, she drew her breast from her shirt and whetted the 
sword upon it. At this uncanny act the Skraelings took 
fright, ran out upon their boats and rowed away. Praising 



Thurfui Kcirlseffie's Saga 117 

Freydis for her courage they went to their booths and 
dressed their wounds. 

Although many Skraehngs and only two Norsemen had 
fallen, yet the advantage in numbers rested with the natives. 
However fertile the land was, they now understood that 
they would constantly be exposed to danger and fear from 
the natives. They made ready to sail back to their owir 
country. 

They sailed northward along the land and found five 
Skraelings sleeping in their bags. They had vessels filled 
with marrow and blood. Supposing them to be outlaws, the 
Norsemen killed them. Thereupon they came to a nes 
where were a great many deer (caribou) , and the nes looked 
like a dung heap, because the deer lay there at night. Peo- 
ple in Newfoundland, who know the conditions, told me that 
the caribou is in the habit of resorting to points of land that 
project into the sea to escape the swarms of flies and mos- 
quitoes that torment them. Now they returned to Straum- 
fjord and found everything that they needed. 

Karlsefne set out with one ship to look for the lost 
Thorhal Veideman, while the rest stayed behind. They 
sailed northward past Kjalarnes and then (southward) 
along the west coast. They had the land on the port side 
and there were only solitudes. When they had sailed a long 
time they came to a stream that flowed from east to west 
into the sea. They laid the ship along the south bank 
in the mouth of the stream. One morning Karlsefne and his 
men saw something that glittered in the forest above a 
clearance. They called to it and it moved; it was a Uniped. 
It hopped down to the bank of the river, where they lay, and 
shot an arrow into the entrails of Thorvald Eiriksson, who 
sat at the helm. A little later Thorvald died of this wound. 
The Uniped ran away northward and they hurried after 
him and thought that they saw him now and then, but he 
seemed to get away and at last he ran out upon a bay. Then 
they turned back. 

Then they sailed away northward and on the way they 
thought they saw the land of the Unipeds; but they did not 
want to risk the lives of their people. It appeared to them 
that the mountains that they saw here and those they had 



118 



The Norse Discovery of America 



seen at Hop were the same and that from Straumfjord 
here and from Straumfjord to Hop was the same distance. 
They returned and stayed at Straumfjord the third winter. 
There was disagreement and the people divided into parties. 
Karlsefne's son Snorre, who was born the first fall that they 
were at Straumfjord, was now three winters old, when they 
went away. 

When they sailed from Vinland they had a south wind 




HUMBER RIVER, WEST COAST OF NEWFOUNDLAND 

and came to Markland. They found there five Skraelings 
(Eskimos) , a bearded man, two women and two boys . The 
boys they captured, but the others sank into the ground. A 
little superstition appears at times in this saga. When the 
natives swarmed on all sides of them in the battle, they 
imagined that their eyes had been bewitched ; as the Eskimos 
escaped into their igloos, they seemed to sink into the 
ground. They took the boys along with them, taught them 
the Norse language and had them baptized. These said 
their mother's name was Vatheldi and their father's Uvaege, 
and two kings ruled over the Skraelings, who did not live in 



Tliorfin Karhcfne^ s Saga 119 

houses but in caves or holes. On the other side opposite 
their land was a land where the people wore white clothes 
and carried before them poles with banners and shouted 
loudly. People think that this was Hvitramannaland. 
Karlsefne reached Greenland and passed the winter with 
Eirik the Red. 

As they left Markland Bjarne Grimolfsson was driven 
into the Irish sea. Before they knew of it the ship began 
to sink; for it was worm-eaten. The afterboat, which had 
been smeared with seal tar and was secure against the worm, 
could hold half the crew. At the suggestion of Bjarne they 
drew lots about going into the afterboat. The afterboat 
reached Dublin in Ireland and related these occurrences, but 
Bjarne Grimolfsson and his companions were supposed to 
have perished in the worm-sea; for nothing has been heard 
of them since. 

Of the great expedition that sailed with Karlsefne and 
Snorre only about 6S people returned to Greenland. The 
following summer Karlsefne sailed back to Iceland and set- 
tled with his wife Gudrid at Reynines. 

I shall only call attention to the fact that we have in 
this saga the description of a real land, which we identify 
as Newfoundland. The northernmost point ends in Kjal- 
arnes, the Atlantic coast trends eastward and the west coast 
line runs north and south. Fish and game abandon the 
northern part in the fall and remain in the southern part 
all winter as they did at Straumfjord and Hop. It is plain 
that the one who has told the story of this saga has had 
some knowledge of the conditions in Newfoundland. To 
use the same test that we followed in the Flateyarbok we 
can sa)! that the Karlsefne saga is genuine, because it gives 
us in outline a correct description of the conditions that 
prevail there. 

The same voyage in the Flateyarbok runs in this manner. 
The same summer a ship came from Norway to Green- 
land. The commander was Thorfin Karlsefne, the son of 
Thord Hesthovdi, a rich man. He passed the winter at 
Brattalid and married Gudrid, the widow of Thorstein. 
As before there was much talk of making a voyage to Vin- 
land, and Gudrid as well as the others urged him to do 



120 The Norse Discovery of America 

so. Karlsefne decided to make an expedition to Vinland and 
collected a crew of sixty men and five women. They agreed 
to divide equally the profits of the voyage. They took 
along all kinds of cattle and intended to settle in the land, 
if it were feasible. Leif allowed them to use his houses in 
Vinland. They went to sea and reached without any acci- 
dent Leif's booths. Finding a large whale that had drifted 
ashore, they cut it up and it was good, and the cattle thrived 
on the grass. They found grapes and game of all kinds. 
They cut timber and laid it on a cliff to dry. 

The following summer they saw Skraelings who came in 
great numbers from the forest. The cattle were nearby 
and a bull began to bellow and low very loudly (belja ok 
gjalla akafliga hatt). The Skraelings were terrified and 
hurried with their packs to the houses of the Norsemen 
and wanted to force their way in; but Karlsefne ordered 
the doors closed. Neither understood the others' language. 
Then the Skraelings opened their packs and showed them 
gray furs, sables and all kinds of peltries. They desired to 
barter especially for weapons; but Karlsefne forbade that. 
The women brought milk, and as soon as the natives saw it 
they wanted nothing else. The trade was of that kind, 
remarks the saga, that the Skraelings carried off their pur- 
chases in their stomachs, while the Norsemen retained their 
packs and furs. Karlsefne built a strong palisade about the 
house. At this time Gudrid bore a son, whom they called 
Snorre. At the beginning of winter the Skraelings returned 
in greater numbers and with the same wares. When the 
women came again with the milk, they were satisfied and 
cast their packs over the palisade. After a while one of 
Karlsefne's men killed a Skraeling, who tried to take away 
their weapons. Then the Skraelings made a hasty departure, 
leaving Behind their packs and clothing. 

Karlsefne knew that they would come the third time 
for war and in great numbers and took the necessary pre- 
cautions. Ten men were to appear on the nes, the others 
were to make a clearing for the cattle, when the natives 
came from the forest, and they were to let the bull advance 
in front of them. On the one side was the forest and on the 
other the lake. The Skraelings came and attacked them 



Thorfiii Kiirlst'f lie's Saga 121 

just where they had expected the battle to take place. A 
battle was fought In which no Norseman, but many Skraelings 
fell. Among the Skrcelings was a large and handsome man 
who appeared to be their chieftain. A native picked up 
a Norse ax, looked at it, swung It and hit a neighbor who 
instantly fell dead. The handsome man took the ax, looked 
at it a while and flung It as far as he could into the lake. 
Thereupon the Skrasllngs fled hastily Into the forest and 
were not seen any more. 

They remained there that winter. When spring came 
Karlsefne was minded to return to Greenland. They made 
ready and took along a cargo of vinvid, grapes and furs. 
They sailed away and came safely to Eiriksfjord, where 
they spent the following winter. 

Karlsefne can not have made two voyages to Vinland. 
This Is the same account that we have In the Karlsefne 
saga transferred to Leif's Vinland. The whale and the 
nes make their second appearance. This account reveals 
no new geography : It Is Leif's booths as we know them from 
earlier accounts. All goes remarkably well. In place of a 
long series of hardships in Straumfjord and Hop, we have 
almost altogether sunshine and good luck. Instead of a 
bad whale that made them sick at Straumfjord we have here 
a good whale; instead of a severe winter, famine and loss 
of life we have a mild climate, abundant food and a suc- 
cessful battle. Finally they sail away In their ship laden 
with the good things of the land.''' 



FREYDIS, HELGE AND FINBOGE 

AGAIN there was much talk about making a voyage 
-^^ to Vinland, because such a voyage appeared to be 
both profitable and honorable, says the Flateyarbok, The 
same summer that Karlsefne returned from Vinland there 
arrived in Greenland a ship from Norway owned by two 
brothers, Helge and Finboge. They were Icelanders from 
one of the east fjords and stayed in Greenland that winter. 
When Freydis, the daughter of Eirik the Red, who with her 
husband Thorvard lived at Gardar, heard of their arrival, 
she went to see them. She proposed that they make a 
voyage with her to Vinland and that they share with her one 
half of all the good things that they might get. When they 
had agreed to this she went to her brother Leif and asked 
him to give her the houses which he had built in Vinland. 
Leif said he would not give them to her, but allow her to 
use them. The agreement with the brothers was, that each 
ship should have a crew of thirty able-bodied men besides 
the women. But Freydis immediately broke the agreement 
by taking on board and concealing five more men, which 
the brothers were not aware of before they reached Vin- 
land. Now they went to sea and were to sail together 
as much as possible. The brothers, however, arrived a lit- 
tle sooner and carried their cargo into Leif's booths, taking 
it for granted that they would share every thing equally. 
When Freydis came, she took it ill that the brothers had 
taken their things into Leif's house, since he had given it 
to her and not to them. After some words the brothers 
carried their goods out and built a house of their own 
farther from the sea on the shore of the lake. Meanwhile 
Freydis had her men fell timber to load her ship. Now 



Freydis, Helya and Finhoge 123 

winter set in and the brothers proposed to take up games 
and have entertainments. So it continued for a while, 
until the people disagreed. There arose dissensions and 
the games came to an end and there were no meetings 
between the houses till far into the winter. 

One morning Freydis rose early and dressed herself, 
but did not put on shoes. She put on her husband's cloak 
and walked barefoot through the dewy grass to the house 
of the brothers. A man had just gone out and left the 
door half open. She opened it wide and stood in the door- 
way without saying anything. Finboge, who lay awake at 
the other end of the house, asked her why she came there. 
She wanted him to get up and come out and talk with her. 
They sat down on a log by the wall of the house. "How 
do you like this place?" said Freydis. "The country is 
good, but the quarrel," said he, "which has arisen between 
us without my making it is bad." "You are right," said 
she, "and I think so too; but my errand here is to trade 
ships with you; for you have a larger ship than I and I 
want to sail away from here." "That I will do, if you 
desire," said he. 

Thereupon she walked home and Finboge went back 
to bed. As she lay down in her bed, her cold feet awoke 
her husband who asked why she was so wet and cold. In 
a great rage she told him that she had gone to the house of 
the brothers to trade ships and get a bigger one and that 
they had struck and abused her. "But you, weakling, will 
not avenge my shame nor your own, and now I find that 
I am not in Greenland and I will separate from you, if 
you do not avenge this." 

Thorvard was overcome by her passion and ordered his 
men to rise and arm themselves. Then entering the house 
of the brothers they found the men asleep and bound them. 
As they were led out, one by one, Freydis had them killed. 
Five women remained whom the men refused to kill. Frey- 
dis seized an ax and left them all dead. After this ter- 
rible deed they returned to their house and Freydis seemed 
pleased with her evil plan. She told her men that if it were 
fated them to return to Greenland, she would contrive the 
death of any one of them who would reveal these events. 



124 The Norse Discovery of America 

They should say in Greenland that the others had stayed 
behind, when they came away. 

Early in the spring they loaded the ship which the 
brothers had owned with all th^ good things which they 
could obtain and which the ship could hold. They sailed 
away and had a good voyage and came to Eiriksfjord early 
in the summer. Karlsefne was there with his ship ready 
to sail, waiting for a good wind. People said that never had 
a more richly laden ship gone from Greenland than the 
one that Karlsefne sailed. 

Freydis went to Gardar and settled down in her own 
home. She gave liberal presents to her men, as she wanted 
them to keep secret her crimes. But they were not so 
close-mouthed about her evil deeds and wickedness but that 
the secret leaked out in course of time. When these rumors 
reached her brother, Leif, he took three of her men and 
made them all confess at the same time and their testimonies 
agreed. Leif felt grieved, but did not want to treat his 
sister as she deserved and only predicted that her offspring 
would not fare well. And so it came to pass that all thought 
ill of them from that time. 

Karlsefne sailed away, passed Iceland and came to Nor- 
way and sold his wares. The following spring he made 
ready his ship and sailed back to Iceland and settled there. 

This is not a story of discovery. No new geography 
is described nor are new points added to the old ground. It 
is the story of a commercial enterprise laid at Leif's booths 
in Vinland — a story of blood and horror such as have 
been enacted in early days in many lands for the sake of 
gain. In the former narratives we have followed the rule 
that the story is true if the geography is correct. It does 
not follow, however, at this stage that the story is fictitious 
because the geography is omitted. For a time must needs 
have come when they dropped the geography and turned 
their attention to something else. 

The extreme ease with which they reach Vinland is 
noticeable. None of the leaders had been in Vinland before, 
and yet both the ships pick their way without difficulty. Still 
there is nothing remarkable in this. It is the fourth expedi- 
tion and there were no doubt many Greenlanders who by 



Freydis, Helge and Finboge 125 

this time could steer a ship to Vinland without mishap in 
summer weather. 

In the conversation between Freydis and Finboge it 
appears that the latter is willing to stay behind, while the 
former wants to go back to Greenland. Had they reached 
the point where some were indifferent about going back and 
were willing to make a home on this side of the ocean? It 
is plain from the saga narrative that the Norsemen some- 
where learned and observed the manners and traits of the 
Indians. Good judges admit that a description of the be- 
havior of the natives such as we have in the sagas could 
not have been written without actual observation of a more 
extended nature than we have mentioned in the sagas, and 
we have no record of any sojourn among the natives. It is 
quite possible that after the way was once found there were 
visits made into the interior of which we have no records, 
just as in later times there were among the Indians many 
Frenchmen of whom there is no mention in any records. 
If outlaws and adventurers sought the wilds of North Green- 
land or Labrador, why should they not have gone up the 
St. Lawrence and become acquainted with the Indians? 

We are astonished to find that Karlsefne is yet in Green- 
land. We had expected that he would have sailed away 
the summer following his return from Vinland. The saga 
seems to find it so natural that it does not even offer an 
explanation. We may assume that the cargo he brought 
from Vinland consisted mostly of timber which he disposed 
of in Greenland, and that he there bought a new cargo, of 
Greenland wares, hides, buckskins, seal skins, walrus skins 
and teeth for Norway and that this required the additional 
time. In the Flateyarbok Karlsefne comes from Norway 
and goes back to Norway. The absence of Karlsefne is the 
same in both sagas, five winters and parts of six summers. 
But the distribution of the time is different. In the Karls- 
efne saga he spends three winters in Vinland and two in 
Greenland; in this saga he spends two winters in Vinland 
and three in Greenland. 

About the year 1075 we have a distant echo of the dis- 
covery of Vinland in Adam of Bremen's account of the 
islands in the north. He speaks of Greenland as an island 



126 The Norse Discovery of America 

in the ocean beyond Iceland and Norway. The King of 
Denmark told him that many had found in that ocean also 
an island called Vinland, where vines grew wild and bore 
good grapes and where self-sown wheat was abundant. 
Beyond this island there was no habitable land, but all was 
full of boundless ice and fog. The conception seems to be 
that Vinland lies beyond Greenland and is a wonderland 
of grapes bordering on the frozen ocean. How little he 
understood the real situation we see also from the statement 
that he wants to be believed, because he had it from the 
lips of the king and from the reliable accounts of the Danes. 
The sagas and the Icelandic geographers do not ask to be 
believed; but they give us a geography which we have since 
found to be true. That Adam of Bremen did not obtain 
his information from the Greenlanders or the Icelanders but 
from the Danes is also apparent from the fact that he has 
a geographical conception which is on a par with that in 
Historia Norwegiae and on the early maps. As far as I 
have been able to learn, the correct understanding of the 
geography of the North Atlantic and the New World is in 
those times confined to the Greenlanders and Icelanders. 
The report of Adam of Bremen is of little value beyond 
the curious fact that he mentions Vinland in the second half 
of the eleventh century. 

The last mention of Vinland in the old records is found 
in the Icelandic Annals against the year 1121. It states 
that Eirik Uppsi, bishop of Greenland, went to find Vinland. 
There is no record of his ordination, and some have thought 
that he was one of those early missionaries whom Are Frode 
styles bishops. Nothing more is known of this expedition. 
As a new bishop was appointed already in 1 124, they appear 
to have felt sure that Eirik did not any longer stand in 
the way. It would seem that he traveled in the interest of 
the church, whether he went to Christianize the heathen or 
he had heard that there were enough outlaws and adven- 
turers of his own people to work among in those parts. 

Finally we have in the Icelandic Annals the mention of 
a Greenland ship that had gone to Markland presurnably 
for a cargo of timber. It had seventeen or eighteen men 
on board and was driven eastward in a storm and came in 



Freydis, Helge and Finhoge 127 

1347 without anchor into outer Straumfjord in southwestern 
Iceland. Had it returned without mishap to Greenland 
and not reached Iceland, we should have known nothing 
of that occurrence. This incidental record is the strongest 
possible evidence that the Greenlanders in the fourteenth 
century still knew the way to Labrador and were probably 
in the habit of making annual visits there. 



NORSE LEGENDS 

OUTSIDE of the Vinland sagas we hear of men who have 
drifted across the ocean and come to unknown lands 
and have either perished there or returned and told 
of their adventures without leaving any further traces. 
These legends appear somewhat mythical and to some 
extent savor of sailors' yarns. They seem to have originated 
in Ireland, on the Orkneys, or in Iceland, which are all 
remote from America. That they to some extent have been 
influenced by Irish sea-tales, or the Voyages of St. Brandan 
or Great Ireland is very likely. The real interest in the 
Vinland Voyages was largely confined to Greenland, which 
was advantageously situated for sailing to the mainland of 
America, and to the home of Eirik the Red, which for those 
times harbored navigators of unusual intelligence. 

The legends about Are, Gudleif and Bj0rn do not seem 
to have any other purpose than to give expression to the 
belief in a land on the other side of the sea. I repeat them 
here to show how accounts of this kind differ from historical 
narratives. They are hearsay reports of an indefinite char- 
acter. The land lies far out in the ocean and has neither 
local nor geographical names. How much more definite 
are the accounts of Bjarne, Leif and Thorvald ! Bjarne 
told of his adventure to Earl Eirik of Norway and was 
criticised by his men for not having made further investiga- 
tions. Leif visited Bjarne at Herjolfsnes, bought his ship 
and obtained detailed information about his sailing route. 
Thorvald followed a prescribed course to Vinland. From 
there he made new discoveries and assigned local names. It 
is a mistake to lump legends and sagas together and call 
them Irish myths transplanted to Iceland. These adven- 



Norse Legends 129 

tures are supposed to have occurred at about the same time 
as the real discoveries and may simply be distant echoes of 
the real events. 

The earliest is the legend of Are Marsson of Reykjanes 
in Iceland, who was driven away over the sea in a tempest 
to Hvitramannaland, or Great Ireland. It lies in the ocean 
six doegr west of Ireland near Vinland the Good. Are 
was baptized there and not allowed to escape. Hrafn, the 
Limerick sailor, who had long lived in Limerick and sailed 
between Limerick and Iceland, was the first to tell the tale. 
According to Are Frode Torkel Gellisson said that Ice- 
landers had said that they had heard Thorfin Earl of the 
Orkneys say that Are Marsson had been recognized in 
Hvitramannaland, where he was held in great esteem, but 
not allowed to depart. 

The Eyrbyggja saga relates that Bj0rn Asbrandsson, a 
noted viking, sailed from Hraunhafn in Iceland to go to 
Norway. He met a northeast wind that blew long into the 
summer. Since then no one heard of that ship for a long 
time. Toward the end of the reign of Olaf the Saint Gudleif 
Gudlaugsson sailed from Iceland to Dublin. On his return 
voyage to Iceland he sailed along the west coast of Ireland. 
A strong wind blew from the east northeast and drove him 
far out upon the sea to the west southwest. The summer 
was far spent and they were weary of the sea, when they 
saw a great land which no one knew. They sailed into a 
large harbor and found many people who seemed to speak 
Irish. There came hundreds of men who seized them and 
took them into the interior and placed them before an assem- 
bly to be judged. The Norsemen did not understand the 
language, but as far as they could make out, some wanted 
to put them to death and others to make them slaves. While 
this was going on, a body of men rode up. Under a ban- 
ner rode a large and dignified old man with white hair, 
to whom all showed great deference. He ordered Gudleif 
and his men to approach and spoke to them in Icelandic. 
He questioned them minutely about the principal men and 
things in the west of Iceland, about Borgarfjord and Breidi- 
fjord. After long deliberations the old chieftain helped 
them to escape and sent with them presents to friends in 



.130 The Norse Discovery of America 

Iceland. Late in the fall they arrived in Ireland, spent the 
winter at Dublin and the following summer they reached 
Iceland, where Gudleif delivered the presents and told the 
tale. People in Iceland believed for sooth that the strange 
man was the lost champion of Breidivik, Bj0rn Asbrandsson. 
The civilization of Hvitramannaland is European, 
apparently Irish, and has little or nothing in common with 
the natives of America. The people were Christian and 
dressed in white garments. Are Marsson, who left Iceland 
as a heathen, was baptized there. The natives have horses, 
which were unknown in America till the arrival of the 
Spaniards. Bj0rn Asbrandsson rides under a banner and 
leads a troop of horsemen. The statement in the Karlsefne 
saga that in Hvitramannaland people walked in white gar- 
ments and shouted (chanted) loudly, as they carried before 
them staffs with banners, reminds us of a procession of 
monks or priests. 



THE VIEW HELD IN THE TWO SAGAS 
SUMMARY 

THOUGH it is now over 200 years since Torfason pub- 
lished his Vinlandia, we are not yet agreed upon a 
single place on our shores v^isited by the Norsemen. The 
location of Vinland is held by various authors to have been 
anywhere from Labrador to Florida. We know that Leif 
Eiriksson sailed from Eiriksfjord in the Eastern Settlement 
and Thorfin Karlsefne from the Western Settlement in 
Greenland, but there is no agreement as to where they first 
saw land or went ashore. To learn the direction in which 
they sailed we look in vain to the commentators. Rafn 
makes them sail nearly straight south from Greenland, but 
Hovgaard makes them sail nearly northwest. Between 
these extremes we have numerous suggestions which are all 
equally hypothetical. For a divergence of 90 degrees on 
the compass there is no authority in the sagas, which are the 
final source. If we can not fix more definitely the course 
which these navigators followed from Greenland, we shall 
look in vain for a solution of the Vinland question. 

To enable us to follow the sailing routes described in 
the old sagas we must in the first place understand the Norse 
conception of northern geography. The northern countries 
are the starting point for these discoveries and it is evident, 
therefore, that we must know how the Norsemen conceived 
that they were situated with reference to each other. We 
must be right on this point in order to arrive at definite 
conclusions. Investigators have failed to see the bearing 
of this upon the entire controversy. In their eagerness to 
point out Helluland, Markland and Vinland they have neg- 



132 The Norse Discovery of America 

lected to make sure of their starting point. Firmly con- 
vinced that they could locate the new discoveries they passed 
over the chapter that immediately precedes them — they 
omitted to show how they reached the New World. In 
order to locate with certainty their first landfall, it will be 
necessary to know their general conception of northern 
geography. 

Several obstacles have stood in the way of giving a 
rational explanation to the voyages of the Norsemen. The 
text had not been studied with sufficient care, and important 
points had escaped the notice of the commentators. This 
distorted the conception of northern geography and made 
it impossible to follow the sailing directions. So far scholars 
have found no mention of Baffin Land, which from Green- 
land forms a necessary link in the discovery of the main- 
land to the south. It was difficult to believe that the Norse- 
men discovered the distant New England, if they were 
unable to find the nearby Baffin Land, which was, so to 
speak, the stepping-stone from Greenland to the mainland. 
As I have shown in another chapter, there are in the Norse 
sagas and in the Icelandic geographies frequent mentions 
of Baffin Land, which the Norsemen supposed to be a con- 
tinuation of North-Greenland and to lie about where we 
find it on our maps. It appears that the Norsemen early 
discovered Baffin Land, and from there worked their way 
southward. Upon the discovery of Baffin Land followed 
a series of discoveries to the south. The fact that the 
Norsemen thus cautiously crept along the coasts from land 
to land did not prevent more daring navigators from strik- 
ing across the ocean from Greenland to Labrador. 

Another error even more confusing has obscured the 
interpretation of the sagas and prevented the understanding 
of the narrative. Commentators have been of the opinion 
that the old Norsemen placed Helluland and Markland to 
the south of Greenland. Gustav Storm especially insisted 
on this view and based his argument for the location of Vin- 
land on this flimsy conception. 7'his view he thought was 
found in a fragmentary bit of Icelandic geography, which 
at first sight seems to favor that interpretation. The facts, 
however, are quite different. 



The View Held in the Two Sagas 133 

The Flateyarbok, 0rvar-Odds Saga and Karlsefne's saga 
770c state expressly that Helluland and Markland lie to 
the southwest of the Eastern Settlement or the southern 
point of Greenland. Karlsefne's saga AM. 544 (also AM. 
557) and all Icelandic geographies place Helluland and 
Markland south of Baffin Land. Thus it appears that the 
Norsemen had in the main the same conception of the North 
Atlantic countries as we hav^e. 

The two Vinland sagas contain about 70 references to 
sailing routes and distances. These references are scattered 
in such a way throughout the story that they are unobtrusive 
and pass almost unnoticed. Editors have generally made 
use of them when they accorded with their own theories; 
otherwise they have explained them away or passed over 
them altogether. It occurred to me that it would be worth 
while to follow these sailing directions closely and without 
deviation, in order to test them and, if possible, to under- 
stand still better their conception of northern geography. 
The results were highly satisfactory. The narratives 
appeared to contain distances and sailing directions that 
are as accurate as we can expect them, considering the 
means at the authors' disposal. Although they were not 
made by chart and compass, they are still valuable and show 
a clear and practical knowledge of the North Atlantic coasts. 

Starting from two fixed points we can obtain results that 
far surpass those of former investigators. To be sure the 
doegr is an imperfect standard of measurement, but it is 
superior to no measurement. Regarding the location of 
the new lands discovered by the Norsemen there is no con- 
tradiction in the two sagas. Both start out with the same 
conception and agree so far as they go. Instead of contra- 
dicting and destroying each other, as they are generally 
supposed to do, they support each other and the one often 
supplies what the other lacks. In course of time, however, 
a change took place by which Karlsefne's saga shut out 
the Flateyarbok and the Flateyarbok swallowed up Straum- 
fjord and Hop by transferring Karlsefne's expedition to 
Leif's booths in Vinland. It is the study of sailing routes as 
much as anything else that has given me a clue to the cor- 
rect understanding of these early discoveries. That the sail- 



134 The Norse Discovery of America 

ing directions and the distances have been so carefully pre 
served, we owe largely to the conviction that they were in, 
portant. Although scribes at times made changes in the 
narrative, their ignorance of the real geography probably 
prevented them from changing the routes and distances. 
They rather copied them mechanically as containing impor- 
tant information. 

When we take all the circumstances into consideration, 
we shall find that the sagas give a reasonably good and trust- 
worthy account of the routes that the Norsemen followed 
and the coasts that they visited. If we proceed step by step 
and follow rigidly the story of the sagas in the manner 
indicated, we shall be able to locate with reasonable certainty 
the lands discovered by the Norsemen. I shall here only 
review very briefly the accounts of these discoveries as 
they are told in the sagas, and in the following chapters 
endeavor to prove my contentions by a more minute study 
of the narrative. 

The two sagas that relate these exploits each presents 
a distinct phase of the events. The story of the Flateyarbok 
gives an account of the deeds of the family of Eirik the Red 
and the Greenlanders. The story of the Karlsefne saga 
describes in detail the expedition of Karlsefne and the Ice- 
landers. Karlsefne was an Icelander, resided in Iceland 
and was there looked upon as a national hero. As long as 
it was possible to keep apart the stories of the Greenlanders 
and the Icelanders, there was no quarrel between the two 
sagas; but as soon as the geography of the new discoveries 
became confused and indistinct, the claims of the Green- 
landers and Icelanders are sure to clash. The inevitable 
confusion that thus resulted from the counterclaims of the 
Greenlanders and the Icelanders I shall attempt to disen- 
tangle and to some extent endeavor to restore the original 
form of the narrative. 

The Flateyarbok relates how Bjarne Herjolfsson was 
driven out of his course and saw the east coast of America 
from Newfoundland to North Labrador, whence he crossed 
to Greenland. Spurred on by the spirit of adventure, Leif 
Eiriksson set out from Eiriksfjord in Greenland to explore 
the lands that Bjarne had seen. After landing in North 



The View Held in the Two Sagas 135 

and South Labrador Leif sailed from the Strait of Belle 
Isle two doegr southwest along the coast of Labrador and 
Quebec to the island of Anticosti, which lies to the north 
of the land of Gaspe. Sailing westward from the Strait 
between Anticosti and Gaspe along the south bank of the 
St. Lawrence River, he found in the neighborhood of 47" 
a land abounding in grapes, which he called Vinland. Two 
years later his brother Thorvald on an expedition to Vin- 
land seems to have circumnavigated the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence. He reached Vinland by the same route as Leif. 
The following summer he sailed eastward from Leif's 
booths and cruised east of the land (of Gaspe and New 
Brunswick). Thereupon he sailed north along the west 
coast of Newfoundland till he broke the keel of his ship 
at Cape Norman (Kjalarnes). After putting in a new keel 
they raised the old one on the nes and sailed eastward along 
the coast past the land. On the east coast Thorvald fell in 
a battle with the Skraelings and was buried at Krossanes. 
The saga of Bjarne, Leif and Thorvald developed in Green- 
land, where the family resided, and was late in coming to 
Iceland. 

The Karlsefne saga relates how Karlsefne came to 
Greenland and went on a colonizing expedition to Vinland. 
He sailed out of Eiriksfjord with three ships and 140 or 
160 men on board. Instead of crossing the open sea to 
Labrador, as Leif and Thorvald had done, he chose a longer 
and more circuitous route by way of the Western Settlement 
and Baffin Land, which had been discovered by Eirik the 
Red and called Vestre Ubygd (Western wilds). From an 
island, Bjarney, on the coast of Baffin Land, he sailed two 
doegr to the south and came to North Labrador. 

Here the two sailing routes meet and determine the loca- 
tion of Helluland — a land of rocks and snow-capped moun- 
tains without grass or trees. Helluland is that part of Labra- 
dor which lies north of the tree-line. Markland begins near 
Nain, or about 57 N., and includes the rest of Labrador, 
which is wooded. Following the south-easterly trend of 
the Labrador coast, he came in two doegr to Hamilton Inlet 
in Markland. Another two doegr brought him opposite 
Kjalarnes, or Cape Norman, in the Strait of Belle Isle. 



136 The Norse Discovery of America 

From the Strait Karlsefne should have sailed southwest to 
Gaspe like Leif and Thorvald, but exhausted by the voyage, 
which in this way had become long and tedious, he began to 
look for Vinland as soon as he crossed the Strait of Belle 
Isle. Sailing south along the east coast they settled down for 
the winter at Straumfjord, which they found to be quite dif- 
ferent from what they expected in Vinland. There appeared 
fo be two opinions as to the location of Vinland and the ships 
separated. Thorhal Veideman, the old pilot of Eirik the 
Red, sailed back north to the strait, passed Kjalarnes and 
Furdustrandir and was pushing westward into the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, when a fierce gale from the west drove him 
back through the Strait and east to Ireland. Karlsefne con- 
tinued to sail south along the east coast a long time and spent 
the second winter at a place they called Hop. It was mild 
and abounded in game of all kinds, but had no grapes. Soon 
the natives became hostile and made it inadvisable to stay. 
So they sailed back north to Straumfjord, where they passed 
the third winter. Disappointed in every way they returned 
after three years to Greenland with one ship and about 65 
men. The following summer Karlsefne returned to Ice- 
land and settled with his wife Gudrid at Reynines on Skaga- 
fjord. 

The sailing routes described in the two sagas show that 
for the accounts of Bjarne, Leif and Thorvald we must 
turn to the Flateyarbok, and for that of Karlsefne we must 
follow his saga. In this way one saga will supply the defects 
of the other and the two together form a connected nar- 
rative. Helluland and Markland are common to both 
sagas; Newfoundland occurs in both sagas without receiving 
a name. Bjarne sailed along its east coast and Thorvald 
along its west coast and Karlsefne sailed south and north 
along both coasts. The south coast is nev^er mentioned. Karls- 
efne set out from Greenland with the avowed purpose of 
finding Leif's Vinland. For a brief time they were content 
at Straumfjord, but the severe winter that followed with 
hunger and suffering dispelled the illusion. Hop was far 
more favorable, but the hostility of the natives cut short 
their stay and want of grapes dispelled their dream of find- 
ing Vinland. However, after the return of the expedition 



The View Held in the Two Sagas 137 

to Iceland it became the vogue there to speak of Karlsefne's 
discoveries as Vinland. In course of time the saga of 
Karlsefne came to be regarded as the Vinland saga in Ice- 
land and superseded all other versions of these exploits. 
The partisans of Karlsefne would not hear of any other 
Vinland than that explored by him. It was generally 
accepted in Iceland that Leif had discovered Vinland, but 
in their ignorance of the true geography of America they 
connected it with Karlsefne's discoveries on the east coast. 
In reconciling the work of the two men they assigned to 
Leif the accidental discovery of a point on the east coast 
and to Karlsefne the exploration of the country. They 
related that Leif on his return from Norway to Green- 
land was driven out of his course and came upon unknown 
lands. Leif plays the part of Bjarne in the Flateyarbok. 
With the geography of the Flateyarbok such a view is unten- 
able and appears to have grown up in Iceland. 

The saga of Eirik the Red and his family in Green- 
land and the saga of Karlsefne in Iceland seem to have 
developed independently for at least two centuries. When 
at length they attempted to combine them, they found that 
the only part that suited both was the account of Eirik the 
Red in Greenland. Their ignorance of American geog- 
raphy was so complete that they could see no relation be- 
tween the voyages of the two sagas. Counter-claims were 
made by the partisans of the two families and a strife arose 
which has continued down to our day. 



TWO TRADITIONS 

XX WRITERS assume that the tradition which we have in 
^^ the Hauksbok, AM. 544, is older than that which we 
have in the Flateyarbok, because the Hauksbok is older 
than the Flateyarbok. Hauksbok dates from 1305-34, 
while the Flateyarbok comes from 1387-95, with an inter- 
val of 53 years. But since both accounts, both the Karls- 
efne saga and the G'-aenlendinga ]?attr, go back to older 
codices, one can not be sure that the relation between these 
was the same as between the present codices. If for instance 
the Flateyarbok could point to an older architype than the 
Hauksbok, or if the Hauksbok had accidentally been lost, 
then the standing of the two accounts would be reversed. 
Regarding the age of the two traditions we can not draw 
conclusions from our present codices. 

My opinion is, that the Flateyarbok has a tradition that 
is somewhat older than that of the Hauksbok. For this 
view it is possible to give many reasons. 

The Flateyarbok gives an account of five voyages to 
Vinland, while the Karlsefne saga gives an account of 
only one. It is now generally assumed that the two Vin- 
land sagas contradict each other and that, if one is true, 
the other is false. To me it does not appear so. As I 
understand the Karlsefne saga, it was originally the story 
of Karlsefne's voyage without reference to the other voy- 
ages and without placing it in the regular order of sequence. 
In course of time they forgot or suppressed in Iceland the 
other voyages and made Karlsefne's the only Vinland voy- 
age. By adding the accidental discovery of Leif and the 
naming of Helluland and Markland it came to appear that 



Two Traditions 139 

this was the only Vinland saga and that it was in conflict 
with the Flateyarbok. 

Several writers have called attention to the similarity 
that exists between Bjarne's adventure and Leif's acci- 
dental visit to Vinland. Both were on their way to Green- 
land and both drifted out of their course southwest to the 
American continent. Bjarne followed the coast as far as 
North Labrador and cut across the sea to Greenland, act- 
ing like an able and experienced sailor. After a brief stay 
in Vinland Leif put to sea again and seems to have sailed 
straight to Greenland. Leif's voyage resembles in this 
respect that of Gunleiv Gunlaugsson, who was driven in a 
storm from the west coast of Ireland to Hvitramannaland 
and after a brief stay sailed back in the fall to Ireland. It 
has the air of a fairy tale and does not take into account 
the difficulties connected with such a voyage in those times. 
This tradition has come into existence after the discovery of 
America. It is not likely that Karlsefne on the strength 
of such a sailor's yarn would put to sea on the chance 
of finding the place to which Leif had drifted. On the 
other hand the account in the Flateyarbok is far more prob- 
able. Eirik the Red had already explored the west coast 
of Greenland and found Baffin Land, and adventurous fisher- 
men had no doubt gone farther south. Bjarne Herjolfsson 
had skirted the coast from Newfoundland to Labrador and 
crossed over to Greenland. Leif and Thorvald had 
explored the St. Lawrence basin and made important dis- 
coveries. The route was fairly well known and it was 
high time to think of colonizing. That Karlsefne lost 
his way or chose another route in the Strait of Belle Isle, 
is due to some cause that the saga does not make clear. 
It is far easier to believe that Karlsefne set out after these 
voyages than that he attempted to colonize after the acci- 
dental voyage of Leif as told in his saga. 

Kjalarnes occurs in both sagas. The Flateyarbok relates 
that Thorvald the second summer that he was in Vin- 
land cruised east of Gaspe and New Brunswick and there- 
upon sailed north along the west coast of Newfoundland, 
when a violent storm drove him on the rocks and crushed 
his keel at Cape Norman. When they had repaired the 



140 The Norse Discovery of America 

vessel, they raised the old keel on the nes and called it 
Kjalarnes and continued their way eastward along the land 
to the east coast. 

Two years later Karlsefne came sailing from the north 
off the Labrador coast and saw the nes on the other side of 
the Strait. He tacked along the Labrador coast, crossed 
at the west end of the Strait and followed in the opposite 
direction past the long and sandy strands till they at length 
reached the nes, where they found a keel and called it 
Kjalarnes. 

Since this nes in every respect corresponds to the nes 
where Thorvald broke his ship, we must assume that the 
keel which they found was the keel that Thorvald and his 
men raised there. For those who knew the geography it 
was clear that Kjalarnes in both sagas was the same place 
without giving the full account of Thorvald's mishap. The 
oral tradition in this place would naturally be as explicit 
as necessary, while the literary saga contents itself with this 
brief reference. By recognizing Kjalarnes and Thorvald's 
keel the author of the Karlsefne saga betrays his acquaint- 
ance with Thorvald's voyage and Leif's Vinland. 

From Kjalarnes they moved on to Straumfjord, where 
it looked promising in the beginning. But when they found 
no grapes and had to endure hardships and were on the 
point of starving during the severe winter, they felt con- 
vinced that they were not in Vinland. Karlsefne wanted 
to seek Vinland to the southward along the east coast. Thor- 
hal Veideman, who had long lived in the family of Eirik the 
Red and was familiar with the route followed by Leif and 
Thorvald, wanted to seek Vinland toward the west. He 
obtained one ship and nine men and sailed northward past 
Kjalarnes and Furdustrandir, and when he was about to 
tack westward a gale met him and drove him eastward to 
Ireland. 

The notable fact here is, that Thorhal chose the route 
that led to Leif's Vinland. With a favorable breeze he 
would have reached Leif's booths. It matters not whether 
according to one text he would have followed the Labrador 
coast to Anticosti and Gaspe as Lejf did, or according to 
the other text he would have followed the Newfoundland 



Two Traditions 141 

coast past Prince Edward Island to Gaspe along Thorvald's 
route. 

From Straumfjord Karlsefne sailed south to Hop. On 
low-lands they found self-sown wheat fields and in higher 
places they found "vinvid" (grape vines) but no "vinber" 
(grapes). They called the place Hop, not Vinland. Still 
in aftertimes in Iceland they called it Vinland and ascribed 
to it many traits that rightfully belonged to Leif's Vin- 
land. A stream flows also here from the interior into a 
lake and thence over sandbars into the sea, so that it is 
possible to enter only at high tide. The climate is mild 
and there falls little or no snow in winter. Attempts of this 
nature to describe Hop like Leif's Vinland show that Leif's 
Vinland was the original Vinland and that Hop tried to vie 
with it. It comes so natural. Even Storm, who discarded 
the Flateyarbok, transformed Hop into Vinland, because 
Leif there found grapes. In the same manner he deter- 
mined the location of Hop by the astronomical observation 
which Leif made in Vinland. In course of time they went 
so far in Iceland, that they suppressed Leif's achievements 
and asserted that Karlsefne had discovered Vinland (Land- 
nama 3, 10). 

As stated above, the Greenlanders were probably the 
first to discover the American Continent. They lived near- 
est and had therefore the best chance of reaching the main- 
land. Existence was difl^cult in Greenland, and its inhabi- 
tants were forced to resort to desperate means to sustain 
life. They obtained grain and timber from Norway; but 
the way was long and they felt a constant desire to find 
them in a nearer place. Drift-wood they found up the west 
coast on Kroksfjardarheide; but for bows and other pur- 
poses they needed growing timber. The Icelanders were 
interested in new lands, but their interest sprang from sci- 
entific curiosity and love of adventure and not as in Green- 
land from economic reasons. There is incidental evidence 
outside of the Vinland sagas to show that the Greenlanders 
had found a wooded country. In the Greenland Annals 
we read that the Greenlanders were of the opinion that the 
driftwood gathering on the west coast of Greenland came 
from the bays of Markland. The Icelandic Annals report 



142 The Norse Discovery of America 

that a ship which had sailed to Markland drifted without 
anchor in 1347 to Straumfjord in Iceland. It seems evi- 
dent that this ship had gone to Markland for a cargo of 
timber. From remarks of this kind that have come to us 
by chance it appears that Markland was well known in 
Greenland. 

The land explored by Karlsefne bears in the saga the 
name Straumfjord and Hop and not Vinland; but other- 
wise in Icelandic texts it is called Vinland. Thorhal Gamla- 
son, who accompanied Karlsefne, is twice called Vinlendingr 
in Grettir's saga. The Eyrbyggja Saga says that Snorre 
went with Karlsefne to Vinland the Good and fought with 
the Skraslings there in Vinland. Since Hop has traits that 
remind us of Vinlanci, as we have shown above, there is 
reason to believe that these come from Leif's Vinland. 

The children of Eirik the Red take part in the Vinland 
voyages in both sagas. In the Flateyarbok each of them 
leads an expedition and plays important roles, while in the 
Karlsefne saga they are reduced to actors of second or 
third rate importance. Leif is driven out of his course 
and comes upon Vinland by chance; but does not know 
how to profit by his discovery; Thorstein conducts a fruit- 
less expedition and does not reach Vinland in either saga ; 
Thorvald and Freydis join the expedition of Karlsefne 
without affecting the course of events in a large measure. 
When we consider how differently the two sagas treat the 
family of Eirik the Red, we can hardly escape the conclu- 
sion that here lies the difference between the two. Was 
it the children of Eirik the Red and the Greenlanders, or 
was it Karlsefne and the Icelanders who especially deserved 
the credit of discovering and exploring the Western Conti- 
nent? When we take all the points into consideration and 
carefully weigh the claims of both sides, we must conclude 
that the weight of evidence is in favor of the Greenlanders. 
For this reason we must consider the account of Bjarne, 
Leif and Thorvald which we have in the Flateyarbok as 
essentially correct and reliable, and that they precede the 
expedition of Karlsefne. 

In narrating the same events the Karlsefne saga in 
several instances differs from the Flateyarbok and seems 



Tw o Tra di tions 143 

to favor later views. I shall mention only a few ; the obser- 
vant reader will readily detect others. 

In the account of Eirik's discovery of Greenland the 
Flateyarbok states that he sailed west from Snefellsnes in 
Iceland and came to land on the east coast of Greenland, 
in front of Midj0kul, which is now called Blaserkr. The 
Landnama has: "before ]MidJ0kul where it is called Bla- 
serkr." Hauksbok has "to the j0kul which is called Bla- 
serkr." From this many have drawn the conclusion that 
Midj0kul is an older name than Blaserkr of the same region. 
The evidence is not conclusive, but the former texts are 
fuller. 

His first winter in Greenland Eirik spent on Eiriksey, 
near the middle of the West Bygd, according to the Land- 
nama, which is also the version of the Flateyarbok. Instead 
of this, the Hauksbok has "near the East Bygd." The con- 
text as well as the course of events show that the Landnama 
is correct, and this is also the opinion of Finnur Jonsson. 

The second summer Eirik sailed to the Vertri Obygd 
and assigned local names far and wide. The Hauksbok 
omits this statement, because, as it seems, it did not uncier- 
stand Vestri Obygd. The meaning of Vestri Obygd was 
then known to the Landnama and not to the Hauksbok. 

The Flateyarbok calls Eirik's wife Thorhild; the Hauks- 
bok calls her Thjodhild, and the church that she built Thjod- 
hildar Kirkja. It seems likely, as some have assumed, that 
her heathen name was Thorhild, which she changed to 
Thjodhild when she was baptized. 

Leif called the first land that he came to Helluland, 
because it consisted of cliffs or rocks and was a stoneland 
without vegetation. It seemed to be one cliff or rock 
from the sea to the snow above. It resembled the mythical 
Helluland in North Greenland. The Karlsefne saga calls 
it Helluland because they saw many flat stones there. It is 
obvious that the story in the Flateyarbok is the original one. 
I was unable to learn of any tract of flat stones (hellur) ; 
but missionaries and travelers alike were struck by the cor- 
rect description of the mountains in North Labrador as 
given in the Flateyarbok. 

The Karlsefne saga introduces the land of the Unipeds 
and the mythical Hvitramannaland as real countries. 



THE TWO ACCOUNTS 

Ty EGARDING the discovery of VInland there are two 
-'-^ accounts which writers have often discussed without 
arriving at any definite conclusion. The Flateyarbok relates 
that Bjarne Herjolfsson first saw land and that Leif Eiriks- 
son later explored it and made further discoveries; Karls- 
efne's saga relates that Leif, when he returned from Nor- 
way, was driven out of his course and came upon lands of 
which he had no previous knowledge, and that Thorfin 
Karlsefne afterwards with three ships and a large company 
explored it. Each of these accounts is in full accord with 
the saga in which it occurs, and there is no glaring contra- 
diction within each saga. The difficulty consists in recon- 
ciling the two accounts. When we consider the location of 
the two Vinlands, we see that it must be so and could not 
have been otherwise. 

According to Karlsefne's saga and several Icelandic 
geographies Karlsefne's Vinland was located along the 
east coast. According to the Flateyarbok Leif's Vinland 
was situated in the interior along a north coast. Leif's 
Vinland, therefore, does not correspond to Karlsefne's. But 
since the tradition in Iceland required that Leif discovered 
Vinland, it became necessary to give to the account such 
a turn that it would fit Karlsefne's Vinland. The account 
of Bjarne suits Karlsefne's Vinland. When a ship came 
drifting like that of Bjarne, it would come ashore on Karls- 
efne's and not on Leif's Vinland. Since the geography 
of the Flateyarbok confirms our conviction that we are 
dealing with real occurrences, we are obliged to assume that 
Leif's accidental visit to Vinland is a later form of the 
tradition. The account in the Flateyarbok agrees so well 



The Two Accounts I'+S 

with Eirik the Red and Greenland and the account in the 
Karlsefne's saga fits the family of Karlsefne and Iceland 
so well, that we can not escape the conclusion that one 
saga grew up in Greenland and the other in Iceland. Leif's 
connection with Karlsefne's saga is loose. Any other name 
could have done the same service if the tradition had not 
maintained that Leif first discovered Vinland. Karlsefne's 
saga makes Leif play the role of Bjarne. 

There is nothing in Karlsefne's saga that indicates that 
Karlsefne had knowledge of Leif's accidental discovery of 
Vinland before he set out upon his voyage. On the con- 
trary we have several indications to show that he under- 
stood the situation about as we find it portrayed in the 
Flateyarbok. The keel which Karlsefne and his men found 
on Kjalarnes is the keel which Thorvald and his men set 
up in that place according to the Flateyarbok. Thorhal's 
unfortunate attempt to find Vinland by sailing past Kjalarnes 
and Furdustrandir and thence westward reminds us of Leif's 
Vinland to the west. Since Karlsefne chose the northerly 
course past Baffin Land and came from the north to Hellu- 
land, he landed farther north than Leif, who set sail from 
Eiriksfjord to the southwest. The result of this was, that 
Karlsefne, as we have seen above, went ashore in Markland 
farther north than Leif. From Markland Karlsefne sailed 
two doegr south to Kjalarnes, Karlsefne's Vinland. Bjarne, 
who came from the south, sighted Markland in the Strait 
of Belle Isle, whence Leif sailed two doegr to the south- 
west to the island of Anticosti, lying off Vinland. Both sailed 
from the place where they landed in Markland, two doegr 
to Vinland; by sailing southwest Leif came to a land west of 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the other by sailing two 
doegr south came to Newfoundland. It appears from the 
saga that Karlsefne supposed Vinland to begin with the 
Strait. There he found along the Strait a north shore and 
an island, Belle Isle, off the northeast point, which he may 
have mistaken for Anticosti, off Cape Gaspe. Karlsefne 
explored carefully the whole shore in the hope, perhaps, of 
finding Leif's booths. East of Kjalarnes he sent ashore 
two Scotch runners to go southward and explore the country. 
They returned, one with an ear of wheat and the other 
with a cluster of grapes; but Karlsefne was not fully satis- 



146 The Norse Discovery of America 

fied and sailed on. One cluster of grapes was not enough 
to make a grapeland. At Straumfjord It looked promising 
in the beginning; but a severe winter and hardships with 
starvation staring them in the face changed their minds. All 
were satisfied that Straumfjord was not in Vinland. At Hop, 
in the southern part of Newfoundland, far more favorable 
conditions prevailed and a climate that most resembled 
Leif's Vinland; but neither there did they find grapes, and 
without grapes there could be no Vinland. 

The occurrence of the name Vinland is somewhat pecu- 
liar in this saga. We have Helluland and Markland and 
we hear how they were named; but we never read that 
Vinland was named, nor is it ever stated that they arrived 
there. The reason appears to be that they never found 
grapes. And yet the saga seems to take it for granted that 
Vinland received its name about as it is told in the Flateyar- 
bok. Karlsefne and his party were never sure that they 
had found Vinland. Yet in Iceland they seemed to cling to 
the view that Vinland reached from Kjalarnes to Hop. 
This view seemed to be founded on the conviction that the 
land beyond Markland was Vinland. For us who know 
the location of the different countries and know where Leif 
and Karlsefne sailed, it is evident that Karlsefne never 
reached Leif's Vinland. That it also appeared doubtful 
to Karlsefne and his people whether they ever reached Vin- 
land, we gather both from the account in the saga and from 
the Icelandic geography, AM. 192: "It is told that Karls- 
efne cut a tree for a husasnotra and went thereupon to seek 
Vinland the Good and came to a place where they supposed 
this land to be, but they were not able to explore it or 
take possession of it." 

Hostilities with the natives forced them to return to 
Straumfjord. After another disagreeable winter at Straum- 
fjord they sailed back to Greenland without feeling fully 
satisfied that they had seen Vinland. Yet we read in AM. 
544: "When they sailed from Vinland, they had a south 
wind and came to Markland." While AM. 557 relates that 
they were in Straumfjord the third winter, and when they 
sailed away they had a south wind and came to Markland. 
This is the only place where Karlsefne's discovery is called 
Vinland in his saga. In view of the preceding narrative the 



The Tivo Accounts 147 

name strikes one as surprising and seems to have crept into 
the text at a later period in Iceland, when some claimed that 
Karlsefne had even discovered Vinland (Landnama 3, 10). 
This is a complete change of front, since two years before 
this they were all agreed that Straumfjord was not in Vin- 
land. With the experiences that they had in Straumfjord 
they could hardly have left with the conviction that they had 
found Leif's Vinland. 

The following summer Karlsefne and Snorre returned 
to Iceland and told of their voyage and the strange adven- 
tures which they had met. This became the nucleus of the 
Karlsefne saga and was gradually accepted and recognized 
in Iceland as the Vinland saga. Whether this was in 
accord with the Vinland saga current in Greenland no one 
cared to examine. Leif lived in far away Greenland and 
had little chance to circulate his version in Iceland. Now 
the same thing happened here that has often happened on 
Polar expeditions and on voyages of discovery. They could 
not agree to divide the honors and there began a strife 
which has lasted down to our day. In how far Karlsefne 
himself is guilty of misrepresenting the facts and how much 
we are to attribute to his ambitious family, is not easy to 
determine. Under the circumstances the saga could hardly 
fail to develop in favor of the two most powerful families 
in Iceland. At any rate they made claims which Leif's 
friends in Greenland could not concede. From the saga as 
well as from other bits of information it appears that they 
sought to suppress Leif's and Thorvald's exploits and in 
that way to deprive them of their share in the discoveries 
in the new world. They tried to spread the report that 
Leif was only an accidental discoverer and had been driven 
to the coast in a storm and after a brief stay in Vinland had 
reached Greenland; but that Karlsefne with three ships and 
a large company had explored the country for three years 
and had made attempts to settle there. They made Leif 
play nearly the role that Bjarne has in the Flateyarbok. 
Thorvald and Freydis they took along on Karlsefne's 
expedition and assigned them third rate roles. Thorstein 
Eiriksson, who had conducted an unsuccessful expedition 
and who did not stand in the way of their ambitions, 
they left unmolested. In thinly veiled language they 
attacked even Eirik the Red, who had helped them in many 



148 The Norse Discovery of America 

ways and had shown them great hospitality in Greenland. 
To show their ingratitude for his hospitality they related 
that, when Christmas drew near, food became so scarce 
at Brattalid that Eirik did not know which way to turn 
to provide enough to prepare for the holidays, and he felt 
alarmed lest the visitors should say that they had never 
seen a worse Christmas than the one Eirik the Red had 
given them in Greenland. In this pinch the wealthy Karls- 
efne opened his rich stores and told him to take freely and 
make ready for Christmas. Then matters changed and 
Eirik prepared a Christmas banquet the like of which they 
had not seen in Greenland. About Leif in the Hebrides they 
told a story which is probably false and certainly uncalled 
for in a Vinland saga. From this and more in the same 
vein we see that Karlsefne's friends did not go out of their 
way to protect and shield the honor or the claim which 
Eirik the Red and his children had in the discovery of 
America. 

When Karlsefne and Snorre returneci to Iceland the 
report spread rapidly that they had been in Vinland. Al- 
though they had entertained doubts about this on the voyage, 
it was more than human to resist the glory thus thrust upon 
them on their return to Iceland. That they had been in 
the New World, no one could question; whether the land 
that Karlsefne and his men had explored was the Vinland 
that Leif had found few were interested in deciding. Even 
if a few people in Iceland were correctly informed in this 
matter, they could hardly hold their own against the power- 
ful influence of Karlsefne and Snorre Gode, 

The earliest account of Leif's visit with King Olaf Tryg- 
vason and his return to Greenland is found in Kristni saga 
from about 1120, Since Torkel Gellisson and Thuride 
Spaka, Snorre's daughter, are the sources from which Are 
Frode drew, it is likely that he gathered his information 
before 1100, The text of the Kristni saga is brief and 
direct: I'at sumar for Olafr Konungr or landi su<^r til Vend- 
lands. I'd sendi hann ok Leif Eiriksson til Grzenlands at bo"5a 
tru. I'd fann Leifr Vinland hit gO(>a. Hann fann ok menn 
a skipflaki i hafi. j'vi var hann kalla<^r Leifr hin heppni. 
That summer sailed King Olaf away from the country south 
to Vendland. Then he sent also Leif Eiriksson to Green- 



The Two Accounts 149 

land to order the faith. Thereupon found Leif VInland the 
Good. He found also men on a wreck in the sea. On this 
account he was called Leif the Lucky. 

If we translate J'a with thereupon, later, we have here 
the same account as in the Flateyarbok. 

Leif's three achievements were, that he introduced Chris- 
tianity in Greenland, found Vinland and rescued the ship- 
wrecked men on the ocean. The question to settle is, 
whether he found Vinland on his return from Norway in 
the year 1000 or, as we read in the Flateyarbok, that Leif 
in the winter of 1001-02 bought Bjarne's ship and in the 
following summer found Helluland, Markland and Vin- 
land on a separate voyage after the introduction of Chris- 
tianity in Greenland. If we here translate H with then, at 
that time, on that voyage, we reject the account in the Flat- 
eyarbok, that Leif in the winter of 1001-02 bought Bjarne's 
ship and in the following summer found Helluland, Mark- 
land and Vinland. If we accept that H here means there- 
upon, later, we have in the Kristni saga the notable achieve- 
ments of Leif mentioned in historical sequence, first that he 
introduced Christianity in Greenland, then that he found 
Vinland and thereupon rescued the shipwrecked. Like da 
in Norwegian and then in English, l^a in Old Norse is fre- 
quently used in both ways. My opinion is that Are Frode 
in this place used j^a in the sense thereupon, and that later, 
when friends in Iceland desired to transfer to Karlsefne all 
possible honor in the discovery and to give the tradition a 
different turn, they shifted the meaning from thereupon to 
then. It is not uncommon, however, in the Icelandic sagas 
to give more than one version of the same event. Both 
accounts can not be true and remain side by side. This 
view reconciles both sagas and accounts for both Vinlands. 
If on the other hand we take >a to mean at that time, we 
reject the Flateyarbok and accept the Karlsefne saga as the 
only Vinland saga. We observe that in the oldest source 
Leif is called the Lucky, because he rescued the shipwrecked 
men. 

Upwards of one hundred years after this we find about 
the year 1200 a similar account in Gunlaug Leifsson's Great 
Saga of Olaf Trygvason, chapter 231: For Leifr l^at 



ISO The Norse Discovery of America 

sumar til Graenlands ; hann tok i hati skipsh0fn J'eirra manna, 
er J?a voru ufaerir ok lagu a skipsflaki albrotnu, ok i ]?eirrl 
somu ferS fann hann Vinland hit goSa ok kom at aliSnu J'vi 
sumri til Grzenlands, ok for til vistar heim i Brattahli^ til 
Eiriks foSur sins. K0llu&u menn hann si^an Leif hinn heppna. 
Sailed Leif that summer to Greenland; in the sea he found a 
ship's crew of men who were helpless and lay on a broken 
wreck, and on the same voyage he found Vinland the Good 
and came at the end of the summer to Greenland and went 
home to Brattalid to stay with his father Eirik. People 
called him afterwards Leif the Lucky, 

When we start with Kristni saga, we see how the same 
account grows in course of time. Here Gunlaug takes pains 
to make ]?a mean then, at that time, by inserting on that 
voyage, at the end of the summer. 

From about 1237 we have the same account by Snorre 
Sturlason in the saga of Olaf Trygvason. En >etta sumar, 
er Gizur for til Islands sendi Olafr Konungr Leif til Graen- 
lands at bo6a I'ar Kristni; for hann ]?at sumar til Graenlands; 
hann fann i hafi menn a skipsflaki, ok hjalpa!>i ]?eim; pa 
fann hann ok Vinland hit go6a, ok kom of haustit til Graen- 
lands; hann hafSi I'annig prest ok a5ra kennimenn, ok for til 
vistar i Brattahli^ til Eiriks f0<^ur sins; menn k0llu<^u hann 
siSan Leif hinn heppna; en Eirikr, fa^ir hans, sagdi sva, at 
I'at var samskulda, er Leifr haf^i borgit skipsh0fn manna 
I hafi, ok I'at er hann haf<>i flutt skcemanninn til Grzenlands, 
l?at var prestrinn. 

But the summer that Gizur went to Iceland, King Olaf 
sent Leif to Greenland to order the Christian faith there; 
he went that summer to Greenland; at sea he found men on 
a wreck and helped them; then found he also Vinland the 
Good and came in the fall to Greenland; he took with him 
thither a priest and other teachers and went to Brattalid to 
his father, Eirik, for the winter; people called him after 
that Leif the Lucky; but his father Eirik said that the one 
was an offset against the other, that he had rescued the ship's 
crew at sea and that he had brought the impostor to Green- 
land, meaning the priest. 

The form and the wording in both these accounts are 
so like that in the Kristni saga, that we do not hesitate 
to say that both Gunlaug and Snorre made use of the Kristni 



The Two Accounts 151 

saga and paraphrazed its contents. Like Gunlaug, Snorre 
understood H to mean at that time by adding /;/ the fall. 
From the fact that we find nothing new in this account, we 
conclude that in the 13th century they had no other source 
for this event than Are Frode, as we have him today. Gun- 
laug Leifsson and Snorre Sturlason seem to be mistaken in 
saying that Leif rescued the shipwrecked crew before he 
found Vinland. Kristni saga, Karlsefne saga AM. 544 and 
557, Flateyarbok and AM. 192 place the rescuing of the 
crew after the finding of Vinland. 

The last account of Leif's return to Greenland is found 
in Karlsefne's saga from 1305-34: Lstr Leifr i haf ok er 
lengi uti, ok hitti a l0nd l^au, er hann vissi a?>r enga van 
til. Varu f'ar hveitiakrar sjalfsanir, ok vinviSr vaxinn. 
]?ar varu I'au tre er m0surr heita, ok hoftSu I'eir af 
J'essu 0llu nokkur merki, sum tre sva mikil at i hus. voru 
I0g5. 

Leifr fann menn a skipsflaki ok flutti heim me5 ser. 
Syndi hann i Wi hina mestu stormensku ok drengskap, sem 
m0rgu 05ru, er hann kom kristni a landit, ok var jafnan 
siSan kalla6r Leifr hinn heppni. Leifr tok land i Eiriks- 
firSi, ok for heim siSan i BrattahliS; toku }^ar allir menn vel 
vis honum. 

Hann boSa^i bratt kristni um landit ok almenniliga tru, 
ok syndi m0nnum orSsending Olafs konungs Trygvasonar, 
ok sagbi hversu m0rg agsti ok mikil dyrS fylgSi J^essum 
sis. Eirikr tok I'vi mali seint at lata sib sinn, en f?jo"6hildr 
gekk skjott undir, ok let gera kirkju eigi alnaer husum. Var 
J'at hus kallat ('joShildar-kirkja ; hafSi hon I'ar fram baenir 
sinar ok ]?eir menn, sem viS Kristni toku, tnn l^eir varu mar- 
gir. I'jobhildr vildi ekki halda samfarar vi6 Eirik, si^an 
er hon tok tru, enn honom var l^at mJ0k imoti skapi. 

Leif put to sea and was long out and came upon lands 
of which he had no knowledge before. There were self- 
sown wheat fields and there grew vinvid. There were the 
trees which are called mosur and of all they took samples; 
some trees were so large that they were laid in houses. 

Leif found men upon a wrecked ship and took them 
home with him. He showed in this as well as in other 
things, when he introduced Christianity into the land, the 
greatest magnanimity and ability, and he was always after 



152 The Norse Discovery of America 

that called Leif the Lucky. Leif landed in Eiriksfjord and 
went home to Brattalld — all received him well. 

Forthwith he ordered them 'to accept Christianity and 
the Catholic faith and showed to the people the order of 
King Olaf Trygvason and told them how much honor and 
glory accompanied this faith. Eirik was slow to give up 
his belief; but Thjodhild yielded quickly and had a church 
built a short distance from the houses. That house was 
called Thjodhild church; there she and those who had 
received the faith offered up their prayers. Thjodhild re- 
fused to live with Eirik after she had accepted the faith; 
but that displeased him much. 

Again we have Leif's achievements arranged in the Ice- 
landic order and amplified and embellished according to the 
style of the period. At first sight the author seems to know 
more about these occurrences than former saga-tellers; but 
it is only apparently so. He enlarges upon the discovery 
of Vinland by telling of the good things there, self-sown 
wheat fields, vinvid and mosur trees, but when we read of 
Karlsefne's discovery, we find the very same words about 
self-sown wheat and vinvid, and in the Flateyarbok we read 
that Karlsefne found mosur in Vinland. To make the two 
places agree and to make it appear probable that Karls- 
efne's Hop was Leif's Vinland the author pieced together 
this passage from known sources. 

In relating that Leif rescued the shipwrecked crew, the 
author makes a comparison between the saving of these men 
and the introduction of Christianity. From this passage it 
is not clear why Leif was called the Lucky. 

The passage about the introduction of Christianity the 
author swells by remarks that are either self-evident or 
denied in other places. 

From what we have stated above we have every reason 
to believe that the account that Leif found Vinland on his 
return from Norway is more recent than the account given 
in the Flateyarbok. Both accounts can not be equally reli- 
able and accepted at the same time. It is plain that the 
tradition in Iceland would in course of time undergo some 
change. That this change took a turn in favor of Karlsefne 
is not surprising. 



CONCLUSION 

SUMMING up the entire question I shall take the occa- 
sion to call attention to some general thoughts which 
have not found a place elsewhere. From the waters where the 
Norsemen were wont to sail there were three routes to the 
American Continent, which the sagas have treated in their 
own way. Ships might drift in from the open sea, as Bjarne 
and Leif are said to have done when they sailed to Green- 
land. That a ship might thus be driven out of its course 
and come to land on the other side of the ocean, is not aston- 
ishing and has no doubt happened both before and since. 
The remarkable thing is, that they found their bearing and 
were able to steer to Greenland and take advantage of their 
situation. The well known tales about Are Marsson, Bj0rn 
Asbrandsson and Gunleiv Gunlaugsson suggest that adven- 
tures of this nature actually occurred in those times. 

They might sail across the sea from Greenland to Labra- 
dor, as Leif and Thorvald are said to have done in the 
Flateyarbok. Being mentioned outside of the Vinland sagas 
it must have been a well known route. Traditions among 
the Eskimos and ruins on the Labrador coast point in the 
same direction. 

It was possible to sail from the West Bygd over to the 
coast of Baffin Land and thence south to Labrador, as the 
Karlsefne saga carefully describes. That the old Green- 
landers knew the coast of Baffin Land is likely. That some 
of the numerous ships that went north to fish along the 
coast of Greenland should have been driven across Davis 
Strait is very probable and attested in the sagas and in the 
Icelandic geographies. 

Following the Labrador coast south they came to the 



154 The Norse Discovery of America 

Strait of Belle Isle. There the route divides; one goes 
south and another southwest. One could follow the Labra- 
dor coast to Anticosti and Gaspe and then follow the south 
bank of the St. Lawrence river to rich and beautiful tracts. 
From Gaspe and New Brunswick they cruised eastward past 
Prince Edward Island and followed the west coast of New- 
foundland to the Strait of Belle Isle, as Thorvald did. 

From the Strait they could follow the east coast of New- 
foundland to Cape Race or the west coast to Cape Ray. 

From this summary of the routes we see the real rela- 
tions between the two sagas. The Karlsefne saga contains 
one of these voyages and follows one of these routes and 
does not exclude the others. Leif's accidental voyage to 
Vinland becomes superfluous. It was only after they had 
separated the Karlsefne saga from the others and torn it 
loose from its connections, that they found it necessary to 
introduce the story of Leif's accidental discovery of Vin- 
land as an introduction and back-ground to Karlsefne's 
voyage. 

Writers are not agreed as to the names of the two 
sagas. Both have been called the saga of Eirik the Red, 
probably because they both contain the episode of the dis- 
covery of Greenland by Eirik the Red. That the account 
in the Flateyarbok is not the saga of Eirik the Red, is 
apparant from the fact that this very saga refers to the saga 
of Eirik for a fuller account of the difference between Eirik 
and Thorgest. That the Karlsefne saga can not be the lost 
Eirik's saga either, is evident from the fact that in this place 
it is substantially the same as the Flateyarbok and that both 
here copy the Landnama. Its contents furthermore show 
that it is a Karlsefne saga and not an Eirik's saga. 

The account in the Flateyarbok is called the Graenlen- 
dinga J^attr, or the account of the Greenlanders. The name 
shows that it was the version of the Vinland voyages cur- 
rent in Greenland. In this way the Greenlanders related 
the voyages of their ancestors to Vinland. It is reasonable 
to suppose that they used a version that did not exclude 
the story of their own exploits. That the Greenlanders, as 
we are told in the Karlsefne saga, had almost no share in 
the Vinland voyages is not credible and is in fact rejected 



Conclusion 155 

by all. Even Nansen, who discards both sagas, maintains 
that the Greenlanders in all probability discovered America. 

When Arne Magnusson acquired the oldest codex of 
the Karlsefne saga, he wrote on the title page: Her hefr 
upp s0gu l^eirra j^orfinns Karlsefnes ok Snorra l^orbrands- 
sonar. Here begins the saga of Thorfin Karlsefne and 
Snorre Thorbrandsson. Whether the name had faded and 
he wrote it over again or he obtained it from some other 
source, is not known. The name corresponds to the con- 
tents and it seems useless to attempt to prove that this Is an 
Eirlk's saga rauda, as Vigfusson and Storm have tried to do. 
People in Iceland made too little ado about Leif and Thor- 
vald and concerned themselves too much about Karlsefne. 

When we reconcile the warring factions and accept the 
account of the Greenlanders for Bjarne, Leif and Thorvald 
and that of the Icelanders for Karlsefne, we deal fairly and 
do substantial justice to both and obtain a result that sat- 
isfies all reasonable demands. 

Originally Karlsefne's saga began with Karlsefne. The 
genealogical record at the end was added little by little. 
The chapter on the discovery of Greenland may well have 
found a place in both sagas. The accounts of Queen Aud, 
Thorbj0rn Vivilsson and the witch Thorbj0rg have no 
organic connection with this saga. 

The Vinland sagas are not biographical like those of 
Egil Skallagrimsson or the Eyrbyggja saga, that relate the 
entire life of the hero. On the other hand they consist of a 
series of short stories or episodes, each of which deals with 
one voyage, all loosely joined to each other by their common 
interest in the new discoveries on the east coast of America. 
They mention in the first place the family and rank of the 
discoverer, give thereupon a detailed account of the voyage 
itself and finally sum up in a few words their return home, 
if they did not perish in the undertaking. The Flateyarbok 
relates the adventures of Bjarne, Leif, Thorvald, Thor- 
stein and Karlsefne and of Freydis, Helge and FInboge. 
The Karlsefne saga relates only the voyage of Karlsefne. 

Thus the Vinland sagas are incidents in the lives of these 
men and in so far resemble family sagas (Aettesagaer) of 
the kind of Rafnkel Fr0isgode's saga. The interest centers 



156 The Norse Discovery of America 

in this chapter of their Hves, which the saga takes up, but 
the character and contents vary. 

Though the core of the family saga is historical and 
rests on a solid basis, there is much fiction both in details 
and in motive. The saga-maker has introduced freely what 
he thought suited the time that he depicted. In the manner 
of the saga it goes into details with the minuteness of an 
eyewitness and cites the words of the speakers with the 
accuracy of a stenographer. Enchanted weapons and ani- 
mals play a great role. In short, the family saga receives a 
rather free treatment. 

In the Vinland sagas on the other hand all is real and 
historical in accordance with the views of the period. To be 
sure, the saga mentions a Uniped and a land of Unipeds; 
but it is in connection with Thorvald's second death and 
is all fictitious. Ghosts and spectres appear, but in Green- 
land and in connection with the pest that ravages the bygd 
in the winter. Such stories are common in the sagas and 
have dominated the popular imagination down to a recent 
period. On the expedition itself the saga-teller takes pains 
to observe accurately and to relate the events with great 
care. That all is not made clear comes from the fact 
that he does not possess a full and complete knowledge of 
the country and its conditions. It is no easy matter for 
the first time to locate a country and to describe places where 
definite starting points are lacking. They were not in the 
habit of preparing accurate scientific treatises. Their pur- 
pose was to give a true and accurate account. The saga 
gives directions and distances besides a brief description of 
each land at which they touched. Unfortunately they lacked 
instruments and reliable methods. Under difficult circum- 
stances they made use of all the means at their command. 

When the sagas describe the sailings and the routes, the 
narrative runs so smoothly that we almost forget how real 
they are. The form is so elevated above the common- 
place that it reads like a romance. As the story passed 
from mouth to mouth for lojig ages, it assumed a smooth 
and finished form and was finally recorded by men who 
knew how to value and select what was most important. In 
the long development that the stories underwent before they 



Conclusion 157 

were written down they partly lost and partly won. They 
lost no doubt many details, which the memory was unable to 
hold, but they hav^e enlarged upon and emphasized impor- 
tant points and sought to preserve broad traits. In course 
of time these sagas have become idealized and somewhat 
elevated in thought and language. As these seafaring men 
make ready and go from land to land along the coast, they 
often make use of almost regular expressions, which cor- 
respond somehow to the stereotyped lines that recur in the 
Homeric poems. In the long winter evenings in Iceland 
they repeated these tales so often that the leading characters 
become greater and mightier than the rest and appear to 
be heroes. 



NOTES 

1. Thormod Thorfason, Historia Vinlandi<e Antiquse. Copenhagen, 1705. 

2. Gr0nlands Historiske Mindesmaerker, Vol. I, p. 347. 

3. C. C. Rafn, Antiquitates American,*, p. 435. 

4. Rafn. Antiquitates Americanse. Cop. 1837. 

5. Gustav Storm. Studier over Vinlandsreiserne. Cop. 1887. 

Gustav Storm. Studies on the Vinland Voyages, Extract of Memoires de la Societe 
Rovale des Antiquaires du Nord. Cop. 1888. 

6. Fridtjof Nansen, In Northern Mists. New York, 1911. 
Fridtjof Nansen. Nord i Taakeheimen. Kristiania, 1911. 

7. William Hovgaard, The Voyages of the Norsemen to America. New York, 1914. 

8. W. Bell Dawson, Currents in the Strait of Belle Isle. Ottawa, Canada. 

9. W. T. Grenfell. Labrador, p. 55. 

10. A. S. Packard, The Labrador Coast, p. 107. 

11. G. F. Wright, Greenland's Icefields, pp. 24, 29-31. 

12. Nicholas Senn. In the Heart of the Arctics, pp. 43-50. 

13. Grenf ell's Labrador, p. 111. 

14. Grenfell's Labrador, p. 102. 

15. Report of the Brown-Harvard Expedition to Nachvak. 

16. It is worth while to examine the illustrations in Grenfell's Labrador and in the Report 
of the Brown-Harvard Expedition to Nachvak in 1900. 

17. Grenfell, Labrador, p. 102. 

18. A. P. Low, Annual Report, Geological Survey of Canada, 1896, Part L, Vol. III., 
pp. 30 ff. 

19. W. G. Gosling, Labrador, p. 11 and ff. 

20. Daniel Bruun, Det Hoje Nord. Cop., 1902. 

21. Daniel Bruun, Det H0je Nord, pp. 198-221. 

22. Rafn, Antiquitates Amer. p. 271. 

23. Rafn, Ant. Amer. p. 271. 

24. Nansen, In Northern Mists. Vol. II. p. 2. and Hovgaard. Voyages of the Norsemen, p. 118. 

25. I'innur Jonsson, Gr0nlands Topografi efter Kilderne. Meddelelser ora Gr0nland, 20. hefte, 
pi>. 319-20. 

26. Daniel Bruun, Det H0je Nord, pp. 1-152. 

27. Eyrbyggja saga, c. 24. 

28. For chronology cf. Finnur Jonsson, Meddelelser om Gr0nland, 20. hefte, p. 268. 

29. Knut Gjerset, History of the Norwegian People, Vol. I, pp. 197-223. 

30. Eyrbyggja saga, c. 54. 

31. M. L. Fernald, Notes on the plants of Wineland the Good. Rhodora. Boston, 1910. 

32. These I take to be Eskimos. There is nothing in the description militating against 
that view, and the proximity to Labrador makes it more likely. 

33. A good resume of the different views will be found in the appendix to Hovgaard's book. 

34. Hovgaard, Voyages of the Norsemen, p. 238 ff. 

35. The boats of the Eskimos are mentioned on four occasions in the Vinland sagas, two 
in each saga, and every time they are called skin-boats. Are Erode says that the first set- 
tlers in Greenland found among other things remnants of boats showing that the same kind of 
people had formerly dwelt there as they later found in Vinland. The boats of the early 
Eskimos in Greenland were no doubt skin-boats such as Thorvald and Karlsefne saw in 
Vinland. The Vinland sagas and the Islendingabok are then in accord. According to my 



158 The Norse Discovery of America 

views Hop was in Newfoundland. Did the Eskimos live in Newfoundland about the year 1000? 
The habitat of the Eskimo is the same as that of the seal and the walrus on which he 
mainly subsists. Less than 200 years ago both these animals abounded in the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence. The conclusion would be that the Eskimos could at that time have lived in New- 
foundland. In historical times the Eskimos have been found only in small numbers south 
of Labrador. But that may have been for other reasons. Being in control of the Labrador 
coast, they could hardly fail to cross the narrow strait on the ice or in boats. If the Red 
Indians had not occupied Newfoundland by the year 1000, I see no reason why the Eskimos 
could not have had their southern outposts in the island. The sagas point to the Eskimos. 
It is a dilemma. If they were Eskimos in skin-boats, they were then located farther south 
than they are known to have lived in historical times. If they were Indians in bark canoes, 
the Norsemen did not observe the difference between skin-boats and bark canoes. That the 
Norsemen met Indian tribes in the St. Lawrence valley is another question not mentioned in 
the Vinland sagas. Cf. W. G. Gosling. Labrador, pp. 17-18, and Grenfell. Labrador, p. 362. 

Many writers have found Indian traits in the Skra-lings in Hop and Vinland. It is likely 
that the Greenlandcrs met Indian tribes in the St. Lawrence valley and that this knowledge 
of them has colored the description. The ball hurled by the Skralings is supposed to have been 
the demon's head or the ballista, as Schoolcraft calls it, of the Algonquin Indians in the 
St. Lawrence valley. 

36. A passage in the Eyrbyggja saga. c. 48, is supposed to be important in determining the 
date of the expedition of Karlsefne and Snorre. It states that after peace had been made ^ 
between the men of Eyre and Alptafjord in 998 Thorbrand's sons. Thorleif Kimbe and Snorre, / 
went to Greenland. Thorleif lived in Greenland till old age, and Kimbevaag is named after 
him; but Snorre went with Karlsefne to Vinland the Good, and when they fought with the 
Skra;lings Snorre's son Thorbrand fell. The best text places c. 48 after c. 55 and advances 
the event by about four years: but it is not decisive. I take this to be a somewhat general 
statement and to mean that Thorleif went to Greenland shortly after the peace and stayed 
there, but that Snorre went with Karlsefne at the time when he made his well-known expedi- 
tion to Vinland. Regarding Karlsefne little is known beyond what we have in the Vinland 
Sagas. Snorre Gode. however, was one of the most remarkable men in Iceland and appears in 
several sagas. As Karlsefne and Snorre sailed in the same ship to Vinland. we can control the 
movements of the one by those of the other. It is not possible to place this expedition before 
1008. as Snorre according to the Eyrbyggja and Laksdola sagas was busy in Iceland every year 
till 1003 and in 1007 and '08 and as the saga states explicitly that Snorre lived at Helgafell 
eight years after Christianity was adopted by law in Iceland. Storm places the expedition in 
1002-06 and is in conflict with the sagas in several places. The expedition of Karlsefne and 
Snorre required five winters and parts of six summers, which Storm has also ignored. As they 
were away from Iceland only four full summers, it appears that they counted their absence 
only four years. In 1008 Snorre exchanged estates with Gudrun and moved to Tunge in 
Sa!lingsdal. where after twenty-four years Snorre died in 1031. The saga is aware of the 
expedition of Snorre and makes provision for it after he left Helgafell. It states that he lived 
twenty years at Tunge allowing four years for his absence in Greenland and Vinland. I accept 
the following chronology. > 

Bjarne's voyage to Greenland 985. 

Bjarne visits Earl Eirik 1000-01. 

Leif visits Bjarne 1001-02. 

Lcif's expedition to Vinland 1002-03. 

Thorvald's expedition to Vinland 1004-06. 

Thorstein's expedition 1007. 

Karlsefne leaves Iceland 1008. 

Karlscfne's expedition to Vinland 1009-12. 

Karlsefne returns to Iceland 1013. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Anglo-Saxon Classics, Norroena Society, New York, vol. XV.. 1911. 

Anderson. R. B., America Not Discovered by Columbus. 

Babcock. W. H., Early Norse Visits to North America. Smithsonian Institution. Washington, 
D. C. 1913. 

Beauvois. E.. L;i Decouverte du Nouveau Monde par Ics Irlandais. Nancy, France, 1875. 

Bruun. Daniel, Dot Hoie Nord, Cop.. 1902. 

Daly, Reginald A.. The Geology of the Northeast Coast of Labrador, Cambridge. Mass., 1902. 

Dieserud. Juul, Bulletin of the American Gcogr. Soc. Washington. 1901. 

Dicserud. Juul, Svmra. Decorah. Iowa. 1909. 

Delabarre. E. B.. Report of the Brown-Harvard Expedition to Nachvak, Labrador, in the 
year 1900. Geographical Soc. of Philadelphia. 

Eiriks Saga Rauda. translated by Gustav Storm. Cop.. 1901. 

Fcrnald. M. L.. Notes on the Plants of Wineland the Good. Rhodora, Boston, 1910. 

Garde, V., Veiledning til Besejlingen af Kolonierne i Vestgrpnland, Cop.. 1895. 

Hovgaard. William, The Voyages of the Norsemen to America. American-Scandinavian Foun- 
dation, New York. 1914. 

Gosling. W. G.. Labrador. New York. 1911. 

Grenfell. Wilfred T.. Labrador, New York. 1909. 

Griinlands Hist. Mindesm<erker. Cop.. 1838-15. 

Holm. Gustav F., Beskrivelse af Ruiner i Julianrhaabs Distrikt. Meddelclser om Gr0nl. 
Cop., 1883. ^_^^ 

Iverslic, P.' P., Gustav Storms Studier over Vinlandsreisernc, Mpls. 

Nansen, Fridtjof. In Northern Mists, New York, 1911. 

Packard. A. S.. The Labrador Coast. New York. 1891. 

Reeves, A. M., The Finding of Wineland the Good, London. 1890. 



INDEX 



Abbott Nicholas of Thingeyri. SS. 

Adam of Bremen, 41, 125, 126. 

Algonquins, 99. 

Alptafjord, 60, 69, 73. 159. 

Anticosti, 90, 91. 98. 135. MO. 115, 1.54. 

Are Frode, 129, 148, 149, 151. 

Are Marsson, 53, 128, 129. 130. 153. 

Astronomical observations, 13. 15. 17, 18, 19. 

22. 141. 
Baffin Land, 16, 26, 43. 49, 50. 51, 52, 53, 54, 

58. 59, 61, 62, 64, 71, 102, 103, 104, 132. 

133, 135, 153. 
Bardar saga Snaefelsass. 62. 
Bishops Harbor, 31, 34, 89. 107. 
Bishops Mitre. 38, 82, 83. 
Bjarmaland. 51, 54, 57. 
Bjarne Grimolfsson, 101, 102. 115, 119. 
Bjarne Herjolfsson, 11, 12, 20. 26. 38, 74. 76. 

78-84, 85. 87. 90, 95. 96. 102. 128, 134, 135, 

136. 137. 139, 142, 144, 149, 153. 
Bjarney. 21, 26, 41, 49. 60, 61, 102. 103, 105, 

135. 
Bjpirn Asbrandsson. 129, 1.30. 1.53. 
Bjornbo, A. A.. 24, 55, 56, 64. 
Bjorn Jonsson. 12. 42, 46, 52, 53. 58. 59, 62. 

74, 78. 88. 
Blanc Sablon, 34, 89, 90. 
Blaserk. 46, 70, 143. 
Borgarfjord, 72. 129. 
Brattalid. 73, 76. 84. 91. 101. 119. 148. 150. 

151. 152. 
Brcidifjord, 67, 72. 129. 
Brown-Harvard Expedition. 38. 39. 
Bugge. Thomas. 15. 
Cape Bauld. 26, 27. 28, 30. 32, 89. 96. 97. 

107, 108. 
Cape Breton Island. 20. 29. 110. 111. 
Cape Chidley, 34, 38, 105. 
Cape Cod, 17. 
Cape Cove, 97. 
Cape Farevvell. 54, 62. 
Cape Gaspe. 145. 

Cape Mugford. 37, 38, 39. 40. 81. 82, 81, 85. 
Cape Norman. 28. 29, 30, 3], 32. 89. 00, 96. 

97. 107, 109, 111, 115, 135. 139. 
Cape Porcupine. 89. 
Cape Race, 78. 110. 111. 154. 
Cape Ray, 111, 154. 
Cartier. Jacques. 42. 
Chateau Bay. 28. 
Christianity, 57. 74, 76. 98, 102, 114. 126. 130. 

149. 150, 152, 159. 
Cooks Harbor, 30, 32. 
Dagmalastad. 13, 15, 92. 
Davis Bay. 48, 50, 52. 
Davis Inlet. 26, 40, 89, 105. 
Davis Strait. 50, 52, 58. .59. 102. 153. 
Dighton Writing Rock, 17. 18. 
Disco Island. 26, 27. 61. 103. 
Drangar. 67. 68, 69. 
Dublin. 119, 129, 130. 
Docgr. 16. 17, 49. 50, 80, 81, 83, 90, 91, 102. 

103, 104, 105. 107. 110. 129, 133, 135, 145. 
Earl Eirik, 84, 128. 



East Bygd, 46, 47, 49, 54, 58, 70, 71, 131. 143. 
Eiriksfjord, 26, 49, 71, 72, 98, 102, 121, 121, 

134, 145, 152. 
Eiriks saga Rauda. 69, 154, 155. 
Eirik the Red, 17. 46. 48, 49. 66-77, 101, 102. 

114. 119. 122, 128, 135, 137, 139, 142, 148, 

151, 154. 
Eirik Uppsi, bishop of Greenland, 126. 
Eyktarstad, 13, 15, 19, 92. , 

Eyrar, 16, 78. 

Eyrbyggja saga, 68. 129, 142, 155. 159. 
Eskimos. 38, 42, 43. 44. 50. 55. 118. 153. 
Eystri Bygd, 48, 52, 53, 55. 
Faroe Islands. 63, 66. 
Finboge. 12, 122-127. 
Flateyarbok. 11. 12, 14. 17. 20, 67. 75. 78- 

99, 104. 106, 114, 119-121, 133. 134. 136. 137. 

138. 141, 142, 143, 144, 147, 151, 152, 154, 

155. 
Floamanna saga, 46. 

Forests. 37, 39, 40. 42, 44. 89, 95, 106, 117. 
Four Peaks, 26. 27. 39. 
Freydis, 12, 102, 106, 116, 117, 122-127, 142, 

147. 
Furdustrandir, 26, 27. 32, 54, 58. 107, 108. 112. 

113, 145. 
Gardar, 48. 50. 54. 73. 75, 122, 124. 
Gaspe, 90, 91, 96. 98, 135. 139, 140, 141, 154. 
Glaciers, 38, 46, 50, 51, 52, 53, 80, 88, 105. 
Gragas. 13, 19. 
Grapes. 18, 20, 22, 91, 92, 93. 94, 98, 109. 

110, 120, 121, 126, 136, 141, 146. 
Greipar. 47, 48, 51. 
Greenland. 16. 21. 24, 42, 44, 46-62, 70-73, 83, 

85. 94. 101-102. 119, 122. 141, 148-152. 
Grenfell, Wilfred T., 29, 31, 44. 
Grettir's saga, 142. 
Grinnell Glacier. 25. 26, 27. 
Gripla. 46, 53, 55, 57. 58, 59, 62. 107. 
Grffinla;ndinga pattr, 1.38, 154. 
Gronlands Historiske Mindesma;rker, 49. 
Gudlcif Gudlaugsson. 129, 130. 139. 153. 
Gudrid, 20, 73, 94, 101, 119. 120. 136. 
Gulf of St. Lawrence. 27. 90, 107, 125, 135, 

136, 145. 
Gunlaug Leifsson, 150, 151. 
Halogaland, 52. 57, 74. 
Halls Bay. 111. 
Hamilton Inlet, 40, 41, 89. 105, 106, 107. 115, 

135. 
Haukadal. 67, 68. 

Hauksbok. 12. 70. 108. 111. 112. 138. 143. 
Hebrides. 148. 

Helge and Finhogc, 12, 122-127. 
Helluland. 12. 15. 21. 23. 40. 41. 42. 49. 51, 

56, 61, 62, 86, 97, 102. 103, 106, 135, 146. 
Hellur, 104, 105, 106, 143. 
Herjolfsnes. 9, 26, 49, 73, 78. 81. 128. 
Historia Norwegia:. 50, 51. 126. 
Hop, 17. 20, 25, 26, 64, 110. Ill, 114. 115. 118. 

119. 133, 136, 141. 
Hovgaard. William. 25-27. 131. 



160 



The \orst' Discovery of America 



Hrafn, the Limerick sailor, 129. 

Hu.lson's Bay Co.. 39, W. 

Hvarf, 47, 70, 88. ^ , ,,^ 

Hvitramannaland, 53, 119. 129. 130. 139. 143. 

Hvitserk. 4*, 47. .S2. .53, 54, 64. 70. 88 

Iceland. 9. 48, 51. 67. 69, 92, 94, 102. 124, 

126. 127, 128, 142. 145, 147, 148. 
Icelandic .Annals, 106, 126, 141. 
Icelandic geographies, 21, 33, 41. 52, 63. 9d. 

107, 110, 126, 132, 144, 146, 1.53. 
Indians, 125. 
Ireland. 27, 53, 102, 110, 113, lU. 119. 136. 

139. 
Ivar Baardsson, 46, 88. R 

Jokul. 38, 46, 51, 52, 53, 54, 80, 8d, 86. 88, 

94. 143. 
Karlbuda. 59, 61. 
Karlsefne saga. 12, 19, 20, 59, 61, 67, 97, 142, 

1+3, 145, 149, 151, 153. 
Kaumajet, 37. 
Kiglapait. 37. 
King's Mirror, 63. 

Kjalarnes, 9, l7. 20. 26. 27. 32 33 41, 96, 
97 102 107, 108, 109, 110. Ill, 112, 113, 
114. 117. 119, 135, 136, 139, 140, 145, 146. 
Knaltlcikr, 99, 158. 

Kristni saga. 74. 75. 148. 149. 150. 151. 
Kroka-Ref's saga, 52. 

Kroksfjardarhcide. 47, 48, 50, 51, 71, 141. 
Krossanes, 9, 18, 97, 135. 

Labrador. 16, 26, 28, 31, .34-45, SO 53 81, 84. 
86. 87, 88. 90, 98, 102, 104-107, 127, 131, 153. 
Lacrosse, 99. ,,_,,, 

Landnama. 70, 71. 103. 141. 143, 147, 154. 
Leif Eiriksson. 12, 49, 67, 74, 75, 76. 84-94. 
105 106. 113. 120. 121. 124. 128. 131. 135, 
137, 138, 141, 142. 144, 148, 149, 150. 151. 
1.53, 1.55. 
Litlle Bay Island. 111. 
Lvsefjord, 21. 22. 59. 61. 

Markland, 12, 1.5. 21, 23, 24. 26. 40, 41, 42, 
.17. 52. 56. 62, 90, 97, 102, 105, 106, 118, 
126. 135, 142, 146. 
Marthas Vineyard, 17. 
Vlidjrtkul. 70, 143. 
Moravian Mission, 39. 42. 
Mugford Tickle, 38, 82, 83, 86. 
Mythological sagas, 21, 51, 62. 
Mitre, 16. 
Norway. 9. 16, 51, .52, 53. 57, 73. 71, 7a, 81, 

91. 129. 
Nova Scotia, 15. 20. 21. 22, 26. 78. 98, 111. 
Notre Dame Bay, 111. 
Norse Legends, 128-130. 

Nordrseta. 47. , , ,,, 

Newfoundland, 27, 41, 50, 52, 89, 98. 107. Ill, 

113. 1.39, 146, 154. 
Nansen. Fridljof, 23-24, 46, 71. 
Nain. 37, 40, 44. 105. 135. 
Nachvak Bay. 38. 45. 87. 
Obyg.lir. V6, 47, 48, 49, .50, 51. .52, 53. 54, 55, 

57. 62, 71. 
Od.l Johnsson, 49, 103. 
Olaf Trygvason, 74, 148, 1.50, 151. 
Phylian. Capt. R. L., 19. 
Point Amour, 28, 109. 
Porcupine Strand. 89. 
Port Manvers, 37, 40, 81. 
Rafn. Carl Christian, 10, U-18. 19. 21. 48, 62, 

131. 
R.vkholl. 15. 
Rhode Uland. 16, 25, 42. 
Rhod.- Island Historical Society. 10. 17. 
Rlmoui.ki, 92, 95. 
Ryinb.gla, «0, 91. 



Sailing directions. 17-18, 22, 23, 25-27, 33, 41. 

49 .59 69-72 78-84. 90-91, 95-96, 102, 103, 

104. 105-108, 110, 114, 115, 117-118, 129, 132, 

133. 135-136. 
St. Anthony, 29, 79. 
St. Brandan, 23, 24. 
St. Johns, 28.. 31. 

St. Lawrence River, 92, 95, 98, 125, 135, 154. 
Sandy Cove, 109. 
Sandwich Bay, 27, 89. 
Sigurd Stephansson, 41. 55, 58. 
Skin-boats. 97, 115, 116. note 35. 
Sknelings, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55, 97, 115-117, 118, 

120. 135, 142. 
Snefell, 50, 71. 
Snefellsnes, 143. 
Snorre Sturlason, 1.50, 151. 
Snorre Thorbrandsson. Code. 69, 73. 75, 76, 

101, 102, 112. 115. 116, 118, 148. 155. 
Snow. 17, 27, 29, 37, 38, 40, 41, 48, 82, 83, 86. 

87, 88, 115, 135. 141. 
Storm, Gustav. 19-22, 23, 49. 63, 111, 132, 141. 
Straight Shore. 30. 32. 109. 
Strait of Belle Isle. 28-33, 36. 41. 63. 89, 107. 

108, 109, 135, 136. 139. 140. 14.5. 154. 
Straumfjord, 17, 20. 27. 64. 107, 110, 115, 118, 

119. 127, 136. 141, 142, 146, 147. 
Straumsey, 17. 110. 
Svalbardi, 46. 

The Northern Geography, 46-65. 
Thor, 112. 

Thorarin Nefjolfsson, 16. 
Thorbjrtrg, Litil-V0lva. 12. 114, 1.55. 
Thorbjom Vivilsson, 69. 73. 74. 155. 
Thore, the Norwegian, 20. 91. 

Thorfin Karlsefne. 11. 32. 40 75, 76, 101-121, 
122. 124, 1.30. 131, 1.33, 134, 1.35, 137. 139. 110. 
141, 142. 144, 146, 147, 149. 152. 1.54. 155. 
ThorgiU Orrabeinsfostre, 47. 
Thorgest. 68 69, 72, 1.54. 

Thorhal Camlason, Venlendingr. 101. 102. 142. 
Thorhal Veideman, 17. 27. 49. ,50. 102, 104, 107. 

110. 112-115. 117, 136, 140. 145. 
Thorhild (Thjodhild). 67, 76. 143, 151, 152. 
Thorstein Eiriksson. 12. 66. 74. 119. 142 146. 
Thorviild Eiriksson, 12. 18. 49, 76, 94-97. 106. 
109. 117. 128, 135, 139, 140, 141. 142, U7. 
1,54, 1.56. 
Thorvard, 102, 122, 123. 
Thuridc Spaka, 148. 
Timber. 31, 32, 40. 44, 17. 63, 92, 93. 94, -95. 

98. 106. 120. 122. 125. 126. 141. 142. 
Torfason. Thormod. 11-13. 14. 131. 
Torkel Gellisson, 129, 148. 
Torngats, .38. 

Trees, 31, 39, 40, 41, 47, 107, 141. 152. 
Tunit. 42, 44. 
Tyrker. 85, 92, 93. 
Uniped, 117. 113, 1.56. 

Vesiri Bygd, 21, 26. )S. 49, .53, .55, 60, 62, 
Vestri Obygd, 48, 49, .50. 55, 57, 58, 61. 62, 

64. 70. 71, 103, 1.35, 143. 
Vetus Chorographia Gr.-cnlandiie, 59-61, 62. 72 

103. 
Vidalin, Pall, 15. 
Vinland, location of. 13, 15, 21, 26-27. 91-91-. 

115-117, 131. 
Vinlandia, 11, 131. 

Vinvid, 93-91, 98. 115, 121, 141. 151. 152. 
West Bygd. 47, 48, 49, 52, 53, 54, 58, .59, 62, 

70. 71. 102, 103, 131, 143, 153. 
White Bay, 26. 

Rc.oded. woods. 31, .33. 40, -W, 47, 80, 88, 89. 
•r,. 97. 105, 107. 141. 
Onar-Odd's saga, 61, 1.3.'', 



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